The theatre of dreams

Five weeks living together, working together, making a play – the National Youth Theatre production is a dream 'summer camp'. BERNICE HARRISONdrops in on rehearsals

IT'S NOT surprising that 150 young people turned up to audition for a role in this year's National Youth Theatre (NYT) production. On offer was the chance to work with Jimmy Fay, one of our most critically acclaimed directors and on the stage at the national theatre. And not just that. It also meant moving to Dublin for five weeks and living with their fellow cast members (under the watchful eye of houseparents – this isn't Big Brother) while working five days a week towards the production. Even cast members from Dublin had to move in with the group for the duration and no one got to go home at the weekends.

The hopefuls had to be between 16 and 19 and a member of a youth theatre – there are 62 dotted around the country – and they didn’t know what play or part they were going for.

Back in April at the audition, Jimmy Fay didn’t know either because for his first experience directing a youth theatre he took the unusual approach of waiting to see the cast first.

"I wanted to assemble the ensemble and then find the play," says Fay, during a break in rehearsals, "though A Dream Playwas in the back of my mind. I had to see the actors first though and how they might work together and then decide."

It’s Caryl Churchill’s 2005 version of August Strindberg’s surrealist classic which he wrote in 1901 in the throes of a nervous breakdown.

Regarded as ground-breaking because it saw Strindberg experimenting with theatrical forms, the action plays out like a dream, moving backwards and forwards in time, in slow motion or speeded up, with music or without and with characters and events that may or may not be real.

This dreamy world is the dark imaginings of the addled central character who is in search of meaning in a chaotic world.

If it all seems a bit heavy weather for the last few days of August, Claire O’Reilly (16) from Independent Youth Theatre, Dublin, explains what the others clearly feel during the spirited rehearsal

“The play is mad. When I’m trying to describe it to someone really briefly, I’d usually just label it as ‘gas craic altogether’.”

Anyone who has not come across NYT before may be surprised by the challenging nature of the work, perhaps expecting a “teen” play, but NYT productions have included work by Arthur Miller, Denis Johnston and Anton Chekhov and all with a professional team of production staff behind it.

A Dream Playis very much an ensemble piece with the 16 actors playing 39 roles and in choosing it Fay has tapped into the core ethos of youth theatre in Ireland. They are not acting schools. As a former member of Dublin Youth Theatre myself – the first group to be established, by one of the unsung heroes of Irish theatre, Paddy O'Dwyer – I remember it being like a rambunctious youth club that simply did plays, albeit in a pretty serious way. Some people acted, some wrote, others did costumes or lights or learned how to direct. There were people who went on to work in theatre or film but most of us did all sorts of other things.

Some of the Dream Playcast have tried stage schools but opted for the more collaborative aspect of youth theatre where weekly workshops under trained facilitators draw even the most timid or unsure into the process of creating a piece of theatre.

“You learn more in youth theatre,” says Emily Mathews (17) from Tipperary. “The whole workshop process is not about your big moment, it involves everyone and it’s really about what you can gain from it.”

What this group has certainly gained is confidence. They’re not fazed by appearing on the Peacock stage, just excited.

The production of A Dream Play– including the considerable expense of putting the teenagers up in Dublin for five weeks – is principally funded by the Arts Council and the office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.

It doesn’t cost the participants anything – making it one of the most coveted “summer camps” for anyone interested in theatre.

The 16 who made it to the Peacock know how lucky they are. “It’s such a privilege,” says Emily Mathews. “Yeah,” adds 16-year-old Joseph Ryan from Dublin Youth Theatre, “and it’s such a rush afterwards.”

NYT's production of A Dream Playby August Strindberg, in a new version by Caryl Churchill, is at Peacock Theatre, Dublin, from tomorrow till Saturday