A Drama Filled Day in Mullingar

Tuesday, 24th January 2012: TYs headed off on the long bus journey to Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. Myself and Emma spent our time on the bus doing our best rendition of "We Are The World"... ears bled to say the least.
The two other TY classes, Eriú and Banba, have spent the last few months preparing 4 separate plays to take part in a drama competition. Just to let you know, the students wrote these play themselves which is such an achievement so well done girls!
Arriving in the surprisingly large town over an hour later, the huge wine coloured group of us, squeezed into the theatre.
Fódla took our place in the seats of the theatre and watched a couple of the plays rehearse. We had to give our advice but we may have taken our criticisms a tad bit too far.

Drama 1 (Eriú)
This drama was based on Seamus Heaney's 'Mid-Term Break' (a poem I absolutely love, by the way). It was so good! The poem is so heart breaking that it wasn't too difficult to recreate the sadness on stage. Eleana was playing the character of the dead child's sibling and when "A four foot box, a foot for every year" was quoted by the narrator, her portrayal of the crushed sibling was just amazing! I asked her afterwards had she ever done acting before and was so shocked to find that she hadn't! I really liked that play.

Drama 2 (Banba)
The following drama was centred around bullying, a topic that is always so sad. The typical story of an outcast vs. a trio of popular girls with a vicious ringleader that ended with an unimaginable twist! The leader of the popular girls was played amazingly by Sarah. Her boyfriend (well not so much 'boy') gets the outcasted girl, Siofra, pregnant. Sarah's character's bullying and exclusion of Siofra's character backfires leading the rest of the school to hate Sarah. The final scene is off the visions of her schoolmates taunting her. With each snide comment, Sarah takes a pill. When she tries to stand she collapses onto the table and the pills spill everywhere. Believe me when I say, that her death was so realistic, that firstly, I questioned was Sarah ok and secondly, me, Emma and Niamh gave each other the "OH MY GOD, DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?" look. After that performance I thought to myself that it was the one to beat...until the 3rd play began.

Drama 3 (Eriú)
I feel mean saying this but... this was the best drama of the day! It was inspired by the song 'Concrete Angel' which is one of the saddest songs in the world! It makes me cry everytime I listen to it :( The song is about a young girl who is abused by her mother. But this abuse goes unnoticed by her teacher and father. The play was just as heartbreaking as the song. Aoife played the cruel mother flawlessly, and I flinched when she was beating down her daughter, played by Grace, physically and mentally. One day, things go too far. The mother smashes a bottle over her daughter, killing her. The father, Isabelle, walks in to find his sweet daughter dead and his demented wife in the corner, sobbing. But, nothing compares to the final scene of the play - the funeral. Standing over the grave, Isabelle delivered one of the best monologues I have ever heard. It was so emotional and rivalled that of Shakespeare and Wilde. I would consider myself the least emotional person in the world and I am very embarrassed to say that tears threatened to come! I would see that play again in a heartbeat.

Drama 4 (Banba)
The final drama of the day, once again, centred around bullying. This one was inspired by the Wendy Cope poem, 'Tich Miller'. It is viewed from the eyes of an unpopular girl who knew of another girl who was even more of an outcast than herself - Tich. Vicky played Tich so well and was decked out in nerd glasses for the part. Tubby, the less unpopular girl, was played by Niamh. The story is taken from a heartfelt diary entry written about Tich, by Tubby. It tells us of the cruel treatment Tich and herself had to deal with from the bullies - Tich always drew the short straw. The last line of the play is the most heartbreaking. Tubby explains that over time, her life improved and she managed to get her own back. The Niamh delivered the final, sorrowful line: "Tich died when she was twelve". Once again, I found myself getting embarrassingly emotional.

All of the plays were so amazing that I have not done a good enough job of explaining just how amazing they were! Who knew there were so many brilliant actresses in our year?
After that depression session, I was in need of a little pick-me-up... Hello, McDonalds!
We (literally) stuffed our faces with the most unhealthy food imaginable (life = complete) then took a look around the town.
Like every other TY day out, it ended too soon so we had to make our way back onto the bus and off we headed to home.
On the return journey, me and Emma took a break and listened to a bit more 'relaxing' music and fell into one of those "bus ride home" comas.
An unforgettable day filled with drama :)

Sarah