FIVE years ago, three people active in Dublin Youth Theatre went on to create their own company, THEATREclub. By 2010, they had an award-winning sell out show in ‘Heroin’ which won the Spirit of Dublin Fringe Festival Award for its stark look at the rise and rise of heroin use throughout the country.
It’s a historic view, writer Grace Dyas of THEATREclub makes clear, trailing back to the 1960s when the Class A drug’s addictive plumes were first scented in use. She, with co-founders Doireann Cody and Shane Byrne, work with an ensemble of regular performers and collaborators and for ‘Heroin’, worked in collaboration with Rialto Community Drug Project.
“The story is told from the position of in depth research and sympathy,” states Dyas who feels strongly that we as a society have a collective responsibility to deal with the problem and its corrosive issues. “It is told from the point of view of users, dealers, therapists, community activists. The piece is about all the complex elements of drug addiction and by the ending people will hopefully have an understanding as to how [widespread use] all happened”.
“We are all responsible for one another and cannot not acknowledge that people are in pain with addiction around us”.
The 90 minute piece rolls out chronologically, sometimes the performers addressing the audience, sometimes engaging with each other; dialogue and narrative are by account or verbatim, giving ‘Heroin’ its documentary styling: “Our aim is to represent every voice”.
Having toured internationally with this work, THEATREclub is at Lime Tree Theatre on Thursday September 26 and Friday 27, 8pm.
