#OnceAMonkey - Eireann Devlin, Class of 2022
Following her professional stage debut in the New Wolsey Theatre’s February 2023 production of Dennis Kelly’s DNA (directed by Douglas Rintoul), we chatted to BA (Hons) Acting graduate Eireann Devlin about what appealed to her about drama school training with Fourth Monkey and what inspired her to audition, as well as about the work she has been creating and working on since she graduated in Summer 2022…
Introduce yourself! Tell us what you studied at Fourth Monkey plus a little about your background.
Hi! I’m Eireann, I studied the BA (Hons) Acting degree at Fourth Monkey and I graduated in September 2022.
I’m a working-class actor from Carlisle, Cumbria, and I’m also a writer and a singer! I made my stage debut in February at The New Wolsey and my screen debut this March with Channel 4.
What appealed to you about actor training with Fourth Monkey?
I became a member of the National Youth Theatre in 2017, so I already had a good understanding of what being part of an ‘ensemble’ was. When I read about Monkey I noticed that they also had a very similar emphasis on ensemble work and promoted it way more than any other drama schools I’d applied for, so that was the initial attraction!
I liked the idea of everyone being equal no matter who they were or where they were from. I think originally I was worried that being from the North-West would hold me back in the industry (which it definitely hasn’t!) and I wanted to be somewhere where I would be seen the same as everyone else. This was all obviously my own insecurities about ‘sounding different’, which I quickly got over once I was at Fourth Monkey!
What do you remember about your audition day? What stood out for you?
It was the first audition day I’d been to where I really felt seen. The team made me feel like they wanted me to be there and just really made me feel at ease. Originally I had just applied for the foundation course, as I was young and thought that I wasn’t ready for a degree yet, which was just me letting my insecurities get in the way of my work (again!), but I was encouraged to return and audition for the BA Acting accelerated degree, and so I did and subsequently got a place.
The audition day was the most fun I’d ever had and at an audition; I actually came away feeling like I’d learned something instead of over thinking every last thing I said or did, which is what I usually did after an audition. Obviously there was also the added bonus that it was free! Being working-class and travelling from the north wasn’t cheap so this was a massive help to me.
What are your favourite memories of your training with Fourth Monkey? Why?
My favourite memory is definitely doing Anatomy of a Suicide (Alice Birch)and playing Anna in my first year. At the time, it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do both mentally and physically and I was pushed to places within my practice that I’d never been to before and didn’t even realise that I was capable of.
We had an amazing cast and an extremely supportive director and I think we really created something special together. I think it was at that point in my training that I started to believe in myself and realised that I deserved to be where I was; imposter syndrome is a really normal thing to feel as an actor I think, especially when you’re from somewhere with no arts scene, and it was my practitioners and peers at Fourth Monkey that helped me get over it!
When you joined Fourth Monkey, what direction did you imagine your creative career would take? How has this evolved and developed since you graduated in 2022?
I thought that I’d buckle down and finish my training and then probably wouldn’t work for a couple of years after that. Before I trained, the industry just seemed like a bit of a void to me that I didn’t really understand how to tackle. I also was adamant that I didn’t want to make my own work because I didn’t think that I was a) capable of it or b) that I had anything to say. Being at Fourth Monkey really helped me change my mindset on this.
I used to write all the time as a child but fell out of love with it when I had to start doing it for my exams and when I was in school. I only started writing again when we started play writing sessions with Liv Ello, one of the regular writing and theatre making practitioners, at Fourth Monkey. These sessions made me flex my writing muscles again and subsequently I fell back in love with it and haven’t stopped writing since! Fourth Monkey teach you to be a maker just as much as they do to be an actor, which had helped me massively. You don’t get that at every drama school.
I also landed my first professional acting job two months after graduating, signed with an agent shortly after and have just filmed my first screen job with Channel 4; so I really couldn’t have been more wrong about where my career was going to go!
(Image credit: DNA at New Wolsey Theatre; Will Green Photography)
You made your professional debut in Dennis Kelly’s DNA (dir. Douglas Rintoul) at the New Wolsey Theatre in February 2023 – what appealed to you about this project and what did you discover about yourself an as actor during the process?
I graduated without representation, so I was sending myself off for everything that I could. Dennis Kelly is a fantastic playwright, DNA is a great play and the New Wolsey in Ipswich is an excellent regional theatre, so I really wanted that job. I also really wanted to work with Douglas Rintoul, as he had done a lot of really cool projects and I thought it would be a very good kickstart to my career!
The auditions were workshop style, like Fourth Monkey, which was a blessing because of the my training! And I came away from both my first round and my recall feeling like I’d been taught something. We rehearsed the play in two and a half weeks which was challenging at times, especially because it was my first job, but I felt like I really rose to it to be honest; I surprised myself by not finding it as hard as I thought I was going to and that all goes back to my training and the fact that Fourth Monkey prepared me for that.
(Image credit: Will Green Photography)
As well as appearing in DNA, you have been working on some of your own creative projects – what is the focus for this work and what inspires your creative process?
All of my written work is inspired by where I’m from (Cumbria, in the north west of England) and the stories that surround that region and the people who live there. When I tell people where I’m from, they usually think it’s in Wales and I really want to do something to reverse that and put Cumbria on the map within the arts.
It was really hard trying to become an actor coming from somewhere like that because you’re essentially on your own with it. There’s no aunty or neighbour whose had a crack at acting that you can ask for help or advice, and there aren’t really any acting classes available. People from Cumbria don’t think that acting is for them, because there’s no representation for them or of them on the stage or screen, so I thought if I did something about that, and maybe got my work out there then that would change. It’ll be a long process and it’s not an easy fix, but if I can encourage even just one person from my region to give it a go then I’ll be happy!
(Image credit: Will Green Photography)
You recently shared a work-in-progress piece as part of a scratch night at a regional theatre in Cumbria – tell us a little about the piece you shared and how you found the experience.
I’ve written a play about the Foot and Mouth outbreak which occurred country-wide in 2001. It hit Cumbria really badly and had a huge impact on agricultural workers, and I really wanted to tell that story because it deserves to be heard. I did an R&D and then a scratch at Theatre By The Lake in Keswick, Cumbria’s only producing theatre, and it went really well! It was really well received and a lot of people wanted to see more of it, which is always nice to hear. It’s really given me the drive to get it finished.
It was potentially the most nervous I’ve ever been before a performance; I was presenting myself as an actor and a writer and the character is so much like myself that I felt like I had nowhere to hide almost! Ultimately, it was very rewarding and I’m very glad that I did it.
Similarly, what have you found particularly inspiring, challenging, or surprising about creating your own work? How has training with Fourth Monkey helped prepare you for these challenges?
I think the challenging thing for me is that it’s your whole self that you’re putting out there. Most of my stories come from my own lived experiences in one way or another, so as I said before there’s nothing to hide behind! To be honest, I’ve had to be really brave; I would never have done it if I hadn’t felt so heard, seen and valued by the team at Fourth Monkey. Or, maybe I would have, but not until I was much older and had more experience.
When I was training, I always felt the need to embellish my work with things that didn’t need to be there – I would almost do too much because I thought that what I was doing on my own just wouldn’t be enough and being at Fourth Monkey really helped me get out of those habits.
Above all, I think they gave me the space to believe in myself and my work and that now filters into everything I do and create. It took me a long time to realise that there was nothing arrogant about self belief and that you actually need it, and it was training at Fourth Monkey that taught me that.
Finally, what advice would you share with anyone who is thinking about auditioning for Fourth Monkey?
Just go with it! They’re going to ask you to play and challenge yourself in the audition in a way that nobody has probably asked of you before and it might feel a bit weird at first but I can guarantee that if you let go and just go along with it you will have fun and learn a lot.
Also remember that you deserve to be there; it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from. You deserve to be in that space just as much as the next person. At the end of the day, the panel aren’t there to catch you out – they want you to do well!
If you are thinking about the next step in your creative journey and have been inspired by Eireann’s advice and insights, check out our undergraduate audition information – everything you need to know about what to expect from an audition day with the Fourth Monkey panel plus how to submit a direct application via our website for September 2023 entry.
Direct applications for all undergraduate training courses remain open until the end of June, and there is no audition fee for all applicants to allow anyone with the drive, passion and potential to join us for professional training – hit the button below to see all remaining audition dates for 2023 entry and to book your audition directly via our friendly Admissions team.
