Bringing the children to the cinema is well and good, but don't forget live theatre, writes Catherine Foley as the Peacock puts on two plays for young people.
'Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are wonderful but it's also important for children to experience magic in front of their eyes," says Ali Curran, director of the Peacock. She's hoping two new plays at the theatre, aimed at 8-to-12 year olds, will speak directly to the sophisticated minds of young people. Both are stories about the relationship between a parent and child, and aside from the inherent metaphors and moral messages about change and self-realisation in The Road to Carne by Jim Nolan and Meat and Salt by Marina Carr, Curran says "you can just really have a good laugh. They are very entertaining pieces".
The plays, billed together as Sons and Daughters, are timed for families to see together as opposed to just school group. Sons and Daughters, the third in a series of storytelling theatre productions for young people presented by the Peacock, was developed with the Abbey's Outreach/Education Department, and Curran wants to present an "integrated approach for all ages. It's broadening the remit of the Peacock to be more inclusive in terms of age demographics."
A theatrical experience should be an opportunity to allow parents "do something with their kids. That's one of the subtle but imperative differences" between this and other productions developed with an educational focus. "Theatre can be quite a forbidding notion for children, particularly at that age," she says.
Programming it as the first show of the year at the Peacock, and including the production in the theatre's annual programme was important, signalling for audiences that it is not ancillary to the mainstream performances, though, she adds, without stripping it of its educational remit.
Andrea Ainsworth is director of the complementary plays. "What we have in both stories is a point of identification, which is a child. The child in both stories goes through a journey, they both have to leave home and go through various obstacles . . . we come to an end having discovered things about growth and the realisation of self."
Marina Carr has taken the English fairytale, Cap o' Rushes, believed to have inspired Shakespeare's King Lear, and given it her own treatment. One significant difference, Ainsworth points out, is that in contrast to the reconciliation at the end of King Lear, Carr's play takes the line that a tyrant is a tyrant is a tyrant. There are no hugs and kisses in store for Big Daddy at the end of the piece.
As in much of her work for adults, Carr does not compromise, but conjures up a world of hidden evils and dark powers. There is no sense in Meat and Salt, says Ainsworth, of trying to "sweeten it for children or somehow make it palatable. I believe we can take children on a journey which is tragic and momentous and which contains real obstacles," she says.
"We've got the darkness and a fantastic sense of humour and a sense of the bizarre . . . There's this strong girl who is at the mercy of a tyrannical father. She is thrown on to this lunar landscape where she meets bizarre creatures. She is independent, forthright and wonderfully stroppy. And he's a foolish tyrant who loves the sound of his own voice." The girl is played by Ruth Negga, who played Lolita in last year's innovative Commedia Del Arte dramatisation of Nabakov's novel.
In contrast, Jim Nolan's The Road to Carne is located in a familiar rural landscape where a tale about a young boy who has to step into his father's shoes and look after his family unfolds in the style of a traditional Irish folk-story. "I had an image of this very big, strong, travelling man walking down a country road and his family trailing behind," says Nolan, founder of Red Kettle Theatre Company in Waterford and writer of The Salvage Shop and Blackwater Angel. The act of faith which the little boy has to make in the course of his journey is a recurring theme in many of his plays. The Road to Carne is about "that transitional period in children's lives as they move from innocence to accept responsibility . . . It's that journey that children make from innocence to take their place in the so-called real world." The play grew from the idea of "a child living in the shadow of a very powerful man, and being forced to come out of that shadow and be his own person," he explains. He paints a vivid world of the imagination where anything can be made possible if you really believe in yourself.
There is a strong musical element in both plays, though it avoids traditional fanfares, drum-rolls or clashing symbols to signal danger or fear or joy, says composer Paul Keenan. "I'm not crazy about films that have constant underscoring that tell you what to feel."
He has chosen a cello, played by Vyvienne Long, as the musical accompaniment, because it is "very versatile . . . it can go very low and also play in a particular high range that gives it an almost unearthly quality." The mood and the language of Nolan's play is lyrical and poetic so he has given The Road to Carne "a fairly traditional sound". "It could be a folk-tale . . . It's an evocation of change." In Carr's play, Meat and Salt, the music is less evident because he believes it is "more eloquent on its own", adding it is "the weirdest fairy-take, it's so rich and full of very, very funny stuff and it's terribly sad".
Sons and Daughters runs until Saturday, February 22nd, with performances Monday to Friday at 10.15 a.m. and 12.15 p.m. and on Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Telephone: 01-8787222