Gathering in the Gaff

Greenside House

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Whitefriar Youth Club have won numerous awards for their community and environmental work, but tonight, they don their best theatre face. In a building facing the flats where many of the participants live, we’re ushered in to a multi-storey free gaff. It’s a come-all-ye night of looking back at life in Dublin’s inner city; of growing up gardenless and making your own fun. Young actors - from 11 upwards - dressed as dapper hosts or Dickensian urchins invite us to help with a dinner of coddle (I’m chopping onions, and worrying about health and safety). While it cooks, we play marbles, skipping and hopscotch, before sitting down to dinner with strangers and one local per table. It’s less about theatre than making connections, of breaking bread and sharing stories. Endearing and slightly chaotic, it’s an enjoyable experience that plays with theatre’s fourth wall .

Until Sept 20