Every family has secrets. Some families have bigger secrets. Some families have dangerous ones. State secrets. Secrets under floorboards. Secret spaces embedded in the walls. Two families have kept these secret spaces for generations.
Visual Artist and Co-artistic director of ANU Productions Owen Boss and Theatre Maker Genevieve Hulme-Beaman’s families have been connected for generations by the convergence of secrets and spaces generated by the double lives of their respective Great Grandfathers. Exploring the impact and contributions that this alliance made on the newly formed Irish State, this work examines the effect living double lives has had on the preceding generations.
Both men lived tangentially by proclamations of alternative social orders, worlds within worlds, resistant to the rules of the terrestrial law and state. Spending most of their lives evading capture so that they could achieve the kind of Ireland they imagined. To achieve this, both placed their respective families in acute danger. In order to survive, they created fake identities and a network of hidden spaces and codified systems. Both families have subsequently passed down a deep need for privacy. Secret codes, knocks and doorbell rings - a leftover reminder of house raids, arrests and a deep distrust of the outside, that even generations on, doors would never be opened unless the codes are adhered to by visitors. Both families still use the mantra ‘don’t write anything down.’
