WHAT do 170 on stage for one big show look like and do – playing up to 300 characters? Lime Tree Theatre offers us the opportunity to enjoy this spectacle in an original production, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, on Tuesday March 15 and Wednesday 16 at 8pm.
Make the run into Paddy’s weekend special by turning out to support The Creative Show 2016, directed and written annually by Limerick’s cultural ambassador, Myles Breen.
The February press launch in Culture House, hosted by playwright Mike Finn, clued in the public as to who and how many are involved.
Anticipate actors, dancers, singers and musicians from Limerick Youth Theatre, Daughters of Charity Services Limerick, Coláiste Nano Nagle, Laurel Hill Coláiste, Patterns Dance Collective and Music Generation Limerick.
“The Creative Show is one of those really special things,” explains Myles in interview. “Angie Smalis of Limerick Youth Theatre and Dónal Sherlock of the Daughters of Charity (DOS) came to me six years ago to work on this for the purpose of two things, to bring two groups together who had never worked together before and to generate creativity through a show”.
They began with 30 candidates and their practice has since snowballed. In 2014, Laurel Hill Coláiste Choir came on board under Olga Ahern; Music Generation Limerick City with Peter Hanagan last year and Patterns (dancers with disability) this year.
“For sure, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is a big show, not just of actors and performers. There is a huge involvement by these groups in the creation of visuals as well”.
Myles credits Kate Hodmon and Martin Shannon of LYT for leading in the prop, film and backdrop dept.
This year, to drive the 10 weeks of rehearsals, he took the concept of Gulliver and invented the Gulliver family. With a great-great grandparent at the helm, they all head off on a trip: “They think they are going to Australia and wind up in Oz. They also get trapped in reality TV, elements there of the Big Brother House, and ‘The X Factor’ with Simon Cowell, and there are shades of Peter Pan with Captain Hook’.
An original soundtrack is emerging with Peter Hanagan shaping this aspect. ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ will showcase music, dance, acting, solo turns, characterisation and those great visuals.
Book for this adventure created by many stakeholders for March 15 and 16, 8pm on www.limetreetheatre.ie
