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drinks Monday 2 June 08
DUBLIN ... Colman Higgins describes the scope and history of Dublin Gay Theatre Festival ... and reviews two of its shows ... Down Dangerous Passes Road ... Confessions of A Mormon Boy /// LONDON ... film on now ... La Question Humaine / Heartbeat Detector /// BRIGHTON ... It's on till 26 May and here's at least 20 Things you might want to know about Brighton Fringe /// PEOPLE ... Who was there at Fringe Report's First Monday 5 May - photographs & article /// CULTURE ... One Culture ... film screening 30 May booking now ... details
Tumbledowntown
Verdict: Social realism tinged with anger
Dublin 05 – Apartment in Ballymun housing project – 12-18 September 05 - 18.00, 19.00, 20.00 (45 mins)
Tumbledowntown is a swansong for Ballymun - Ireland’s only experience of high-rise public housing.
It consists of 14 performances of several minutes each, mostly monologues. It takes place in different rooms of an apartment in the housing complex. There is plenty of gritty social realism, but also scenes of hope and humour.
Ballymun was built in the 1960s as the future of public housing. It soon degenerated into a sinkhole for social problems, with heroin rampant. In 1996, it was decided to knock down all the old high-rise towers and build a ‘new Ballymun’ - with quality low-rise housing and more social facilities. This process is still underway, and the area is a strange mix of bright new estates and grim tower blocks.
The audience is met at the local arts centre, and led to one of the old blocks. All audience members just about fit into one of the notoriously unreliable lifts, avoiding the stench of urine on the draughty stairwell. They are led by an usher into a darkened two-bed derelict apartment. They move from one room to another for each performance.
The work is written by teenagers living in the area and is based on their many and varied experiences. They range from a heroin addict to a couple moving in to their new flat, full of hope.
The most touching performance is of a child’s song - Incy Wincy Spider - by a lost-looking child in a nightdress, who suddenly turns to ask the audience where her mother has gone.
Many of the pieces, but not all, end with a sudden flash of anger, a slap across the face of middle-class Ireland. Yet some pieces also proclaim a nostalgia for the old Ballymun. For all its problems, it was home at any one time for 20,000 people.
The show ends on a light note, with a hilarious scene of a teenage couple having sex for the first time. The girl’s mother knocks on the bedroom door and the boy has to escape via the window to the balcony, where the audience are standing.
Cast Credits: (programme order): Prodigal Daughter – Nicola Parsons. Francie – Robert O’Connor. Incy Wincy Spider – Jordaine Cunningham. Stuck – Nicola Whelan. Steps – Donna Douglas. Moving In – Amy Corr. Impending Fatherhood – John Nesbitt. Suitcase – Lewis Magee. Birthday – Mandy Sullivan. Leaving – Nicola Moore. …And Entering – John Nesbitt / Mark Walsh. After Chekov – Jessica Cullen / Amy Corr. Awakenings – Robert O’Connor / Nicola Moore.
Company Credits: Writers - young people from Ballymun. Director – Louise Lowe. Company: Performance Lab @ Roundabout Theatre. (The show is one of the Young Fringe events for younger people.)
END
(c) Colman Higgins 2005
reviewed 17 September 2005 / Apartment at Ballymun, Dublin
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
