GOLEEN native, David Donovan will make his directorial debut at the Cork Fringe Festival this weekend with the play Lady on the Rock.

Now living in Dublin, the play draws inspiration from a distinctly Dublin cultural phenomenon, a mysterious statue often seen in windows across the city.

Lady on the Rock is a one-woman show written by Jack Maguire and blends gothic surrealism with biting humour. It is narrated by the statue, a watchful figure who details the life of the woman who lives in her home.

‘It’s this very Gothic, surreal, but also darkly funny one-woman show that explores ideas about inheritance, how we navigate through the world when we create these escapes for ourselves and how they can follow us into our adulthood,’ David told The Southern Star.

He has previously staged a number of his own works.

‘I think with putting on your own stuff, you often have to wear a lot of hats. I’ve worked with producing, directing my own stuff, doing sound design, but this is actually my first time directing someone else’s work. It’s definitely a different sort of challenge for me, but I’m really enjoying seeing another side to working creatively.’

Growing up in a rural environment had a profound impact on his creative process.

Goleen native, David Donovan, will make his directorial debut at the Cork Fringe Festival.

‘It’s obviously a very rural and picturesque place. I think that growing up, you are very attuned to people’s interactions. I guess I would often consider myself someone who is quite an observer of people, the way that you can pick up on really subtle relationships between people with just a few words or a look, I think that’s something that’s always really stayed with me.’

Having studied English at Trinity College, David said he loves the contrasts between the hustle and bustle of the capital to the quiet isolation of West Cork.

‘I think being able to come back to Goleen is really nice. The amount of time it takes to get from Dublin to Goleen, I always think the length of that journey, by the time you get to Goleen, I feel like a million miles away from whatever I’m worried or stressed about.’

The weekend in Cork will be made all the more memorable for him as the staging of the play coincides with his 30th birthday.

‘I was a little bit stressed about it initially but I tried to see it as more of an opportunity to have an excuse to do something nice in the city for the weekend and be able to get a lot of my friends together to come and see this.

‘Having that kind of support of friends around me is going to be really nice and I think it’ll be a really memorable weekend for me.’

Lady on the Rock is performing at the Cork Arts Centre on Sunday, May 10th at 4pm.

Tickets are available at corkfringe.com