ANU Productions Is Creating Immersive Shows From Our History
ANU Productions Is Creating Immersive Shows From Our History
ANU isn’t your typical production company. Established in April 2009, the company has been putting together live performances that place you, the audience, at the centre of the action for 17 years.
The company is led by Co-Founders and Directors Louise Lowe and Owen Boss, with producers Lynnette Moran and Matthew Smyth.
What sets ANU apart is their unwavering commitment to creating live visceral experiences that extends beyond the traditional stage. Over the years, the company has become internationally recognised for its site-specific productions outside the theatre, which transform real-world locations into living, breathing parts of the story for the audience to interact with.
ANU are all about creating an immersive live experience through their performances, where each and every member of the audience feel truly involved in the fierce world they create. Nowhere is this more apparent than ANU’s latest production, The Good Luck Club, an immersive live visceral experience commissioned as part of The National Archives of Ireland’s year-long commemorative programme to celebrate the release of the 1926 Census records.
The performance uses the iconic location of The National Archives of Ireland to enrich the production. “The building is an active custodian of Ireland’s archival history, and that awareness informs all decisions we make,” says the writer and director Louise Lowe. “From how audiences will move through the space to how the census records inform the performance.”
ANU Productions has created over 52 seminal works, public art commissions, gallery installations and museum interpretations, which would not have been possible without the artists and minds behind the ANU team with a huge focus on research, not just rehearsal. Every single one of their creations are based on real life productions or artworks, requiring a commitment to research to build a story from real accounts, archival material and extensive investigations into their subject matter. This isn’t a production company with an interest in history, it’s a production company which lets the real facets of Irish history guide every performance they present.
Through this dedicated focus on real life events, ANU is able to tell the stories which otherwise would go untold. Their productions often ask questions about community, identity and social change; an approach which has earned ANU a reputation as one of Ireland’s most innovative theatre makers.
To find out more, visit their website.
