Student’s bullish approach to theatre

By Siobhán McGuire

The Bull Alley Theatre is tucked away under Bull Alley on Mark’s Alley West.

Inside students don the professional attire of performers and are dressed entirely in black. “It allows us to be a blank canvass, to be stripped down from what we ourselves would wear, branding and symbols can often throw people off when we’re practicing,” said Cian O’Ceallachain.

This reporter sat in the third year students’s production ‘No End of Blame,’ a political drama about censorship and the life of a dissident Hungarian cartoonist Bela Veracek.

The class started like any other, the students sat around chatting about their day and the teacher/director walked in and announced that rehearsals would soon begin.

Everyone took to the stage (constructed by the students themselves) and immediately morphed into their respective characters. The scene exploded into life and before I knew it I was jolted back to pre-World War Two Britain where the heated discussion was about portraying people’s art and drawing the true struggle of ‘the English people.’

The director interjected offering welcomed and respected guidance which often turned into a rally of thoughts and perceptions which ultimately resulted in a deeper understanding of the characters.

The thought process behind the play and the research carried out by the students was exhibited on the otherwise white walls of the Liberties College classroom. This was certainly no boring boxed room but was instead blanketed by colour and intriguing quotes. The walls were a canvas of thoughts and reflections on the play itself- something the students do for every production.

“We do a lot of research into characters and are asked to write the diary of our own characters, this really helps us to decide who our characters are,” said drama student Gerard Jordan.

“The characters are quite real and easy to relate to despite the play’s setting of the 1900s,” added Rory Dunne.

The play will begin on March 20 and will run until March 24 in the Civic theatre, Tallaght.