Getting a grip on group dynamics in new play

Carmel Winters’ latest play explores how new communities are created when people are displaced by conflicts and war, says Colette Sheridan.

Group dynamics in a desperate life-threatening situation are at the heart of playwright Carmel Winters’ latest work which she has written for the National Youth Theatre (NYT).

Commissioned by the Abbey Theatre, Salt Mountain has a cast of 16 young people, ranging in age from 16 to 20. The actors are from all over the country with four of them — Catherine Blake, Éabha Landers, James Ronayne and Liadh O’Donovan — hailing from Cork.