THE Parish is a promenade theatre project that has been in rehearsal for several months in St. Mary’s Parish.
The Local Creative Youth Partnership and the GAFF have worked with community groups in St. Mary’s Parish for many years and with community partners Limerick Youth Service and Limerick Island Community Partners to create this theatre piece that celebrates the vibrancy enjoyed in Limerick’s Nicholas Street in the 1960s.
The Parish, a theatrical stroll through Limerick City’s oldest community, will play at St Mary’s Cathedral, (6.30pm) from Thursday July 27 until Saturday July 29. (Previewing on Wednesday July 26). Some walking and standing forms part of this experience but seating is available for most audience members in the four venue settings.
The primary aim in this project is to re-create a sense of the village that was the heartbeat of ‘The Parish’ in the 1960s, as an arts event but also celebrating local history as part of The GAFF’s ongoing Tiny Little Histories programme.
Audiences are guided from St. Mary’s Cathedral to Kings Island Community Centre, a promenade that will be punctuated by stops at Nicholas St. Youth Space, St Mary’s AlmsHouse and other street locations to witness theatrical vignettes and dramatic reenactments of everyday life as it was in the1960s in this historic part of Limerick City.
At the final destination of King’s Island Community Centre, light refreshments and a jiving session will allow participants and audience to enjoy a 1960s style community ‘Social’. As the audience walks along the route of Nicholas Street, memories of living inside the walls of King John’s Castle will be regaled by Bernard Ledger and Joe Ryan while some scenes from Mike Finn’s Field of Dreams play will be performed by John Costello, Carmel Duggan and Mary O’Sullivan.
For the Local Creative Youth Partnership, the pièce de resistance is a new short script, created with young people in the Nicholas St. Youth Space showing a busy family dinner time in 1960s Limerick.
In bringing about this project the talents of some excellent artists including, Carrie Barrett, Amy Bowdren, Ella Daly, Mike Finn, Frank McCarthy, Sean Horgan and LCYP Coordinator, Monica Spencer have come together from theatre, visual art, audio and music with the indomitable strengths of this powerful community.
Audiences will join the show at St. Mary’s Cathedral at 6.30pm where they will enjoy a short musical interlude before being guided onto Nicholas St.
Two separate audience groups will simultaneously leave the starting point, each taking turns to see short dramas in two locations before moving onto King’s Island Community Centre where both groups will come together for a final drama scene and a social gathering in Kings Island Community Centre.
The event finishes at Kings Island Community Centre at approximately 8.15pm.
https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/the-gaff-10024892442
