It’s 2016, and in the midst of vicious austerity, emigration, and a housing crisis, the young people of Dublin are becoming increasingly disenfranchised with the state of the nation. From their base in the autonomous St Enda’s squat, a secret revolutionary organisation of women and men plan an insurrection that will transform the city, and challenge the survival of the 32nd Dáil. An ambitious act of fictional class warfare and dubious historical revisionism, 16 and Rising asks viewers to consider whether their society is dystopian enough, yet, for revolution.
I had the pleasure of working with the wonderfully talented writer and director Sian Ni Mhuirí on this project, which was presented as rehearsed reading at the Electric Picnic on 4th September. Sian is the founding director of theatre company Super Paua, and writer/producer of Aunty Ben – Ireland’s first LGBT play for children – which recently won the Allianz Community Arts Prize 2015.
16 & Rising is a new political theatre project for Young Adults aged 16-25 and was developed as part of Arts Council Ireland’s ART:2016 programme. I played a modern incarnation of Constance Markievicz in it. For updates on the project, follow this FB page.