Patrician Youth Centre members tread boards in Lyric Theatre

Patrician Youth Centre members tread boards in Lyric Theatre

16 June 2021

MEMBERS of the Patrician Youth Centre in Downpatrick travelled to the Lyric Theatre in Belfast to produce a brand-new play as part of this year’s National Theatre Connections Festival. 

The group had been in rehearsals since last October, including continuing to rehearse via Zoom with the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions in December. 

Each year the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK’s most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow. 

Patrician Youth Theatre has been involved in NT Connections since 2015.

This year the young people from Patrician will be performing Wind/Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola Adebayo. This is a play about the British Isles, past and its present. 

Set in a senior common room in a prominent university, a group of first year undergraduates are troubled, not by the weight of their workload, but by a ‘noisy’ ghost. 

They do what any group self-respecting and intelligent university students would do in such a situation – they confront the spiritual irritant and lay them to rest, only to be confronted by the full weight of Britain’s colonial past.

This is a smorgasbord of genres and styles fusing naturalism, with physical theatre, spoken-word, absurdism, poetry and direct address. 

This is event-theatre that whips along with the grace, pace and hypnotic magnetism of a hurricane. Most suitable for ages 15 and older.

The play premieres on Friday, June 25, and be available to stream until the following Sunday from the Lyric Theatre website at www.lyrictheatre.co.uk 

Senior youth worker Yvonne Maguire congratulated the young people on their involvement, commitment and dedication throughout lockdown to make the performance happen. 

She commended the staff team who worked diligently with cast members and musicians in difficult and challenging circumstances, supporting innovation in making the project possible through filming. 

Yvonne said the making of the production was a great learning experience for all and had showcased how blended learning and creativity can make alternatives to live performance possible, opening a door for future work.