Moyross puts its best side forward

A show, devised and written by people in Moyross in Limerick, promises to offer an alternative to the negative headlines about the area and give a voice to the community. Entitled Moyross, the show runs at the Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick from May 1-3 as part of the Limerick City of Culture programme.

The show, which is being developed in association with Dublin-based Theatre Club, will give a voice “to this rich, funny and vibrant community”, says Grace Dyas of Theatre Club. Established in 2008, Theatre Club is involved in socially engaged performance work.

The company brought its play, Heroin, to the Lime Tree Theatre as part of a recent national tour and got to know people living in Moyross.

“We developed a conversation with the community and youth workers here. The show kind of arose out of that. People from Moyross expressed interest in our work and it was interesting to see the comparisons between Dublin and Limerick in terms of social history. We thought it would be cool to come down and do something in Moyross.”

It was built in the early 1970s without social infrastructure. The area has made headlines tends to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. “When you get to know Limerick, you find out that a lot of clubs and sports activities are based in Moyross. But outside of Limerick, there’s a perception that Moyross is all about violent crime,” says Dyas.

Because of the regeneration project, the population of Moyross has gone from 7,000 to about 1,200, with many residents opting for the opportunity to leave the area while new houses were built. “There’s not nearly as much development as has been promised but hopefully, it will come around again. It’s a shame really because there are great facilities in Moyross now, achieved after a long community struggle.”

Moyross the show is essentially about the history of the area, starring 70 locals. “It’s about the current lives of people here; it deals with horse culture and the music scene that’s emerging here. There’s a great hip-hop scene happening. The show will be narrated through rap by three locals called MYC (Moyross Youth Crew).”

While the show is devised by the locals, Theatre Club is helping to shape it in a theatrical sense. “But in terms of the content, that’s all coming from the residents. The story of Moyross is that there were high aspirations for it when it was built. But because of recession, there were no amenities and that led to huge social problems. With high unemployment, vulnerable people were all in one place together without even a shop between them. A lot of community campaigning for amenities took place. The people had to fight for every single they have now.”

A cast of 70 sounds enormous. “Everyone gets to do a scene. The age range of the cast is from eight months to 80 years of age.”

Dyas said that Theatre Club experienced “trepidation and caginess around the project at first. A lot of the time, media people have come in from outside, won the people’s trust but then portrayed them in a way they don’t want to be portrayed. We had to earn the people’s trust.”

There is some anger in the show. “It’s a reflective kind of anger. The show asks a lot of questions. The people wanted to explore the different reasons why a school wasn’t built; why a church wasn’t built. It’s very much grounded in reality.”