'Gulliver's Travels' takes Youth Theatre to Dublin and Cork
The show opens tonight in the Peacock (the Abbey Theatre’s second stage) before transferring to the Everyman, Cork next week. Significantly, it is the 30th anniversary of the event, which — since staging Paul Thompson’s By Common Consent in 1983 — has showcased the very best in Irish youth theatre.
The National Youth Theatre is just one initiative run by the National Association for Youth Drama (NAYD), an organisation that has helped develop over 60 youth theatre groups around the country, catering for over 3,000 young people involved in them. The 16 actors in the show are selected following auditions in youth theatres nationwide. Once chosen, the youngsters spend the final four weeks of the summer rehearsing the show in Dublin, before the curtain finally raises in the National Theatre.
This year marks the first time since 1987 that a National Youth Theatre production will travel outside the capital. “It is important that the National Youth Theatre stays within the National Theatre,” says Michelle Carew, director of the NAYD. “But having spoken with our members, the feeling was that it could have more of a presence outside Dublin as well, and be seen by more people. So we were delighted when the Everyman Theatre agreed to take the show to Cork.”
It’s certainly fitting that the event should travel to Cork. Five of the actors involved this year hail from the region. Between them they represent Active8 Youth Theatre, Cork School of Music Youth Theatre, and Light Bulb Theatre in Mallow.
The show itself is helmed by one of Irish theatre’s most admired directors, Conall Morrison. “It’s a very specific skill to be able to work with young people, to harness their talents and to hear their voices,” says Carew. “Conall is the man for the job. He’s a brilliant communicator, a brilliant listener and he has a way of bringing the best out in people. He’s also an excellent director of ensembles and that’s very apparent in this production. Every person on the stage is completely invested in it.”
Carew stresses that Morrison’s adaptation of Swift’s masterpiece is not going down the cosy ‘family entertainment’ route that so many popular adaptations of the novel have pursued. Instead, it’s remaining true to the subversive spirit of the book.
“It’s a hilarious show but it’s also a political piece with lots of scatological humour and irreverence,” she says. “Audiences might not realise that there’s such a witty political depth to Gulliver’s Travels and I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised. In the more political moments of the play it asks the question: ‘What kind of country are these young people inheriting?’.”
These are challenging times to be young, but Carew stresses that when young people are afforded a chance to express themselves in a safe and supportive environment, invariably they flourish.
“Drama is hugely liberating for young people. When you give someone the chance to push themselves to their limits, and really invest in something that they care about, you see how they rise to the challenge and you see their confidence growing. You see what young people are capable of, and that there is so much to be hopeful for. We have to celebrate youth.”
As director of the National Association for Youth Drama at a time of recession, Carew has observed a continuing growth in her sector, largely on the back of an increase in voluntary groups around the country. “Adults — whether or not they have drama experience — see that something is needed in their community and they’re coming together, setting up committees,” she says. “Our job is to help them do it.”
The NAYD do the latter in a number of ways, offering advice and support to youth theatres on issues such as artistic policy, child protection, and training of drama instructors. The ethos behind youth drama in Ireland is one that places as much value on the personal and social development of our young people as it does on their artistic and creative abilities.
Carew says it is vital that, as the State has done in its support for the physical well-being of young people via funding of sports groups, it makes provision for the emotional and social development of young people through youth arts initiatives.
“We’re very happy with our progress at NAYD, but there are still many towns throughout the country that don’t have youth theatres,” she says. “Even aside from theatre, youth arts, as a whole, have the potential to provide our young people with healthy space to express themselves and to reach their ambitions. But it is a lottery. There is no comprehensive or strategic provision of youth arts throughout the country. Every young person should have the opportunity to participate in youth arts activity. And there is so much research that supports the importance of arts in the creative nurturing of young people and their social and personal development.”
* Gulliver’s Travels runs at the Peacock Theatre until Aug 31 and is in the Everyman, Cork, Sept 5-7
