IT IS an obvious objective of the Dublin Youth Theatre, in their annual productions, to expose their members to the experience of the stage while maintaining good standards.
Spinning Webs, by Roger Gregg, certainly does that.
He has created the work from material supplied by the young people of DYT, a montage of pieces of dreams which attempts to delineate the inner life, a surreal journey into the subconscious. His own musical direction, Pat Kinevane's choreography, Tony Wakefield's lighting and Marie Tierney's set and costumes encourage, and receive, performances of commitment and excellence.
What surprises one about the material is its remove from the ebullience and optimism associated with youth. We are offered a series of images containing cruelty, confusion, hunger, cannibalism and more very little, apart from a final upbeat note, is calculated to cheer. It is the nature of this kind of creation to, be inward looking, long on image creation and short on communication, and so it is here.
Paradoxically, the content is least transparent when dialogue is used words are precise and confine one within their apparent meaning, however opaque. The graphic movements and interactions leave more to the imagination, closing no doors and offering points of contact from which subjective interpretation may be developed.
This is not an offering that accommodates a simplistic verdict of winner or loser. It is at times confusing, at other times engrossing. But there is a sense of integrity about it, of an attempt to make inner perceptions manifest without frivolous indulgence, and it is done with style. I'm glad to have seen it.