Teenage Kicks

Given that putting on a show is as much about getting bums on seats as it is the actors on cue, it was a brave decision by Temple Carrig School to steer clear of a well-worn Broadway hit this year.

Instead, teachers Eoghan Cleary, Peter Wallace and Alicia Newton decided to give the kids a chance to create something wholly original and fresh.

It’s a gamble that has paid off, handsomely, the resulting show, Rat Trap, selling out in such record time that an extra night had to be added. Which, of course, also sold out in record time.

That’s over 1,000 people coming to see a bunch of Greystones kids put on a show that’s entirely theirs. And the fact that there are 135 kids involved in this production – 75 onstage, 60 backstage – reveals just how ambitious a show this is.

Just how much love, sweat and tea went into getting Rat Trap onto the stage next week we decided to find out by asking writer and co-director Eoghan Cleary to take us all the way from there to here… 

Having worked in theatre in a previous life, I have some experience in creating shows. The well-known shows that are done by schools year in year out are written for adult casts of 20 people. With a show we wrote ourselves, we were able to orchestrate it in a way that we could work it within the confines of the lives of our adolescent cast and voluntary production team to include 75 students on stage and another 60 off stage in a show that will still meet the standards of excellence we strive for in TCG when it comes to… I was going to say, when it comes to theatre, but, actually, when it comes to everything.

The show itself is fast paced and packed full of drama. We wanted to produce a show for teenagers about teenagers and create a plot in which our adolescent cast would invest in, and take ownership of. So, our show, Rat Trap follows the lives of four best friends and their involvement with the town’s local criminal gang throughout an unforgettable sixth year summer. There is lots of singing and dancing, and laughter and tears, as the four friends learn about some of the harsh realities of becoming an adult when they are forced to leave their childhood behind.

We have great Irish songs, we have great Irish storytellers, we have a country full of drama and conflict, and romance and innocence, and guilt, and, dare I say it, love and hate.

Every song in the show has connections to Ireland, most of which are classic Irish rock’n’roll hits that everyone knows and loves. We are delighted to announce that even after extending the run we are yet again sold out, with over thousand people coming to see the show. For those lucky enough to have gotten a ticket it’s important to note that what they see on the night did not exist nine months ago in any form and has been created out of thin air (admittedly, with the help of some of Ireland’s legendary songwriters) by a team of a hundred and thirty-odd teenagers and their teachers.

It’s also important to note that our cast and crew are entirely adolescent and they have proven once again that age is no indication of ability, that success is limited only by the limitations of our expectations and that if our attitude is right, if we can learn to trust each other, depend on one another and work together, there is no barrier too high, no dream too fantastical and no challenge too great for any of us.

And that’s why we do it. That’s why we put so much of ourselves into the shows in this school; because in a world of individualism and mobile immediacy of access to whatever you want whenever you want it, some of the most important skills and life lessons to be learnt are being lost.

Realising that if you commit to a process, that if you can learn to depend on 75 other people and also commit to them in return, you will belong in a world that will support you, and they you will want to be part of. Realising that if you trust the adults who are giving their time to help you develop as a well-rounded young person, and that if you put in the time, and if you embrace the often taxing effort that is required over months and months of your school year, you can achieve something as a group that you never could on your own. Realising that challenges are not be shirked from but are, in fact, what make life interesting and that overcoming them is what makes life meaningful, builds a sense of resilience that will stand to you for the rest of your life. These are the skills that our team in in TCG were lucky enough to be taught in school. These are the skills that we are lucky enough to pass on to our students.

These are the skills we need to be teaching. This is why we have schools.