DUNCAN
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DUNCAN are a collaborative duo, Richard Martin (Glasgow) and Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell (Belfast). They have worked together since studying at the Glasgow School of Art on group projects Procedure, GAMES NIGHT! and Learning Experiment. They became DUNCAN in 2016 when making the work THRUST STAGE at WolfArt in Rotterdam. 

 
As part of the Belfast Film Festival 2020 we staged ‘The Occasional Man’.This site specific, immersive film installation followed our protagonist, ‘Duncan’, a recently retired Glaswegian embarking on a failed attempt to become an actor. The audience was guided through scenes from his disillusioned life, across several rooms of the former UTV Studios at Havelock House. We worked with the UTV film archive (provided by partners NI Screen Digital Film Archive) and cut this with our own original footage and script to create our narrative.
On arrival the audience were given a name badge saying ‘Duncan' and a script and which they were invited to read in the Dressing Room  . We created a set of a pub in ‘Studio One’. The audience watched archive footage of the ‘Havelock Arms’, a pub which used to stand on that site, and was the watering hole for UTV staff before the extension and Studio One was added to the original building. Over the footage is a narrative read by an actor playing ‘Duncan’. As the audience moved through the work it becomes apparent that they are inhabiting ‘Duncan’s’ fantasy that he is a successful actor, but in reality has been involved in a drink driving accident.
We filmed ‘Duncan’ moving through the building, in the dressing room and in the tv studio being interviewed. This was edited together with a documentary about the making of a drink driving advertisement, and a documentary about the Havelock House building.

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The part of 'DUNCAN' was played by Louis Skehal (voice over), Thomas Wells (filmed segments) and Phil Hession (live performance), as well as the entire audience. Production was assisted by Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell and documented by Stu Calvin.