Festival Upstate Theatre company's Zoo Station is proof that community theatre is alive and well in Ireland, and growing. This original play, written and performed by members of Termonfeckin Macra na Feirme, Co Louth, displays how theatre can explore community identity in a way not satisfactorily explored in mainstream media.
The action is set in a small railway station north of Dublin. Tommy, the station master, is retiring after 40 years. He has seen the station turn from being a sleepy provincial backwater to being a busy commuter town.
From this basic premise, the 14 members of Macra, under the capable direction of playwright Declan Gorman, have developed a myriad of shifting scenes and characters that convey the complex realities of modern Irish life.
The grind of commuting, the dark reality behind missing persons posters, unwanted pregnancy and the available choice of abortion, despite the hypocrisy of public posturing - all are presented with humanity and humour, and without the kind of preaching sometimes found in Brechtian inspired agitprop. This was a community looking at itself with the pleasure of recognition.
Applause all round.