And now, on your left... Booh!

There is a perverse pleasure to be had in scaring people. We are all given this licence around Halloween and most of us take it heartily. How thrilling and satisfying when our little pranks work! What a childish pride overcomes us when we hear “Wow! Cool costume!”

Of course Oulala Productions couldn't resist to join in the act; it all started thanks to a discussion with Noel French over lunch at the Swift Festival, back in June. An idea thrown between a spoonful of Pavlova and a dose of David Heap (as a brilliant Jonathan Swift). The rest is history.


The finale of our tour... Yes. There is a girl in there.


And that is precisely our twist on the Halloween scare prank; no matter how cheap the frights or how fake the limbs, we wanted our tour to be both fun and interesting. And we wanted the town as our playground... we wanted audience and participants alike to discover these streets and their secret past. To learn something between the screams and the jumps.

Now, I don't know if the level of perversity is measured by the scale of the “prank”, or the time it takes to set it up. Or is it by the number of accomplices? The number of victims? All I know is that it was a huge pleasure (perverse or not) to see the impact it had on our willing victims. And their feedback both during and after the tour are not doing any favours to our egoes... we even got phonecalls and messages from people who travelled from faraway kingdoms (namely Blanchardstown and Kildare), two days after the tour, to thank us for the experience. And me who thought they were calling to sue us!!

But enough with the bragging. Time to put the spiders back in their box, to put out the fire under the Witch and to become good again.

Oulala is done with the Halloween duty of frights,
Christmas is on its way, it's time to create delights!

Trim: what are we facing now?!

I have learnt that most Irish Houses are designed on the same model: there's the kitchen where everything happens. Then, there's a sitting-room, or the “good room” or the “front room”, which the proud Mam always keeps tidy and nice. That is where visitors are brought to first. That's where the whole family gathers for very special occasions.

Well, for me, the Town Hall is the “Good Room” of the Town. Or at least, it should be. You wouldn't gather your loved ones, including your old auntie who's got arthritis and your little nephew who's four, into the garden shed for Christmas, now, would you?

And that is probably why so many people from Trim -including me- feel so angry or worried about the closure of their “Good Room”. The thing is, they have been angry or worried for a while. Sure, wouldn't you be if your front room was leaking, a bit smelly and -let's be honest- a bit dangerous? You'd do your best to patch things up. To make things look nice for when people come over. But you'd still be on to your landlord with some pleas: “what's going on? Can you do something about this?” You've always paid rent, so you think you are entitled to. You think it's not nice when, at night, after the washing-up is done and you'd love nothing better than to put your feet up in there, with your family, to enjoy some entertainment or just to be together, your landlord just walks in and says "Sorry mate, but you won't be able to go into this room anymore. Thanks for the paint an'all, but you'll have to use the garden from now-on".

Moving away from this analogy, but not too much, I remember that Trim Town Hall was the space that really welcomed me to Trim. I had been living here for a year, but I didn't know the community I had just moved in. It's through the Drama Group and the Musical Society that I got to know people in town. Not in the pub. Not in the shops. Not in the restaurants. That came later, because by then I had a “way in”. That community space was the way in.That is what INTEGRATION was about for me. I could have joined the GAA but I can't run to save my life. I could have join the choir, but I can't sing either. What happens in a Town Hall is unique, varied, entertaining and unifying.

I remember the small village where I lived in France and the Town Hall we had there. The design and size were exactly the same than Trim's one. It held dances, discos, plays, (we don't have pantos in France!) lectures, meet-and greet, mushroom exhibitions (!), we showed films, some practiced Karate, Yoga, weaving... I could go on. It was buzzing.

I even played bingo in Trim Town Hall. I painted sets, I acted, I directed and made really, really good friends. And I laughed a lot. I also cried a bit when I saw my babies on stage for the first time, with all their little friends, in bright costumes and proud as peacocks.

A town needs a few important things to survive:

- a butcher, a baker and a grocer to take care of people's Belly.
- a clothes/shoes shop to take care of people's Skin.
- a school and library to take care of people's Brain.
- a sports field to take care of people's Blood.
- a ruin to take care of people's Memory.
- a church (of whatever denomination) to take care of people's Soul.
- a pub to take care of people's Spirits. (Pun intended)
- a town hall to take care of people's Heart.

I am always proud to say -in Dublin, Navan, Paris or Brest- that Trim has it all and more... I am saddened and -frankly- a little bit horriffied to see that this may change.

My town, my new home, my new family, is now losing its “Good Room”, one that ceased to be Good a while ago, despite the efforts of the community. I know they won't give up quite yet. And now that I am -I believe- part of them, I won't either.

Delphine Coudray
Director
Oulala Productions

Community Theatre – Petty Court Sessions

Dunshaughlin Harvest Festival is fast approaching but the buzz already started a couple of months ago when Oulala Productions were approached by the festival committee: they wanted to bring the old courthouse back to life and give festival-goers a taste of the Petty Sessions as they used to be, back in the 1800s.

A period piece, site-specific, in its original setting, involving research, writing, costumes and enthusiastic performers from the community... what else could we ask for?

We got to work and immersed ourselves in the dark but fascinating times of the Famine, of Meath and its colourful characters, of quirky cases, moving human stories and how the good people of Dunshaughlin may have travelled to escape the hunger. In our writing, we could not ignore the political background of the times and had to include a very well-know English gentleman who changed the fate of many Irish children. We could not leave out the (in)famous Workhouse either... which, from the staff or the inmates, caused the most shenanigans? I'll say no more! Just maybe that we are thrilled to be part of this wonderful project; how much we have learnt so far and laughed and cried... and that's before the rehearsals even started!


Is it a coincidence that our last stage production was set in a courthouse, too? Maybe the Law likes us... let's hope it will last and that the only time we will have to stand in front of a Judge again, will be to adjust his wig and help him with his lines!

See you all on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of September in Dunshaughlin's Courthouse.

Invading the streets...

When Solstice Arts Centre approached us to coordinate their parade in Navan for their festival, we took a deep breath and we jumped right in: we LOVE parades! They are a lot of fun to work on and you always get to meet people that you haven’t met before.

It’s always good to see a community coming together to create some energy in the town and this was no exception. We worked with Belinda and her staff in Solstice to brainstorm some ideas for the parade regarding routes, themes and general ideas.

One thing we were all agreed upon was that we wanted it to be colourful. Once we were all happy with what we came up with, we had to get in touch with all the people that we wanted to take part in the parade, from the Youthreach Progression Samba band, to the schools and community groups, to the volunteers.

The phone calls started, the emails were sent, the letters were posted. School secretaries made appointments for Delphine to visit all the teachers and she got busy making prototype hats and props that the children could make.



The hunt for volunteers began, with help from Jeanette and Stephen in Meath Volunteer Centre. The town council, the Gardai and the Civil Defence were brought on board. Road closures were arranged, local businesses were contacted and the word was spread via social media, newspaper ads and announcements at Mass.

We arranged transport for those who needed it and treats for those who wanted them. We organised an induction meeting for volunteers and teachers so they could get to know each other and go through the ins & outs of the parade.



The night before the event, we made last minute changes to our event specific risk assessment document while the council put barriers and traffic cones out on the Fair Green and stiltwalkers invaded the shopping centre.

Somewhere along the line, we had made friends with the talented Marta at Callmarta Foto and the kind people at Lord Consulting Engineers, who let her use their 3rd floor office window. But we still hadn’t sorted out the weather! The Irish rain was pelting down for days, but by Thursday morning, the sky was blue and the sun came out to play as the children arrived to their pre-arranged positions to meet their stewards.

After that, it was just a case of making sure that the kids were enjoying themselves and that wasn’t hard, with the Navan Samba band beating out their infectious rhythms. With the sun as our grand marshall, the townsfolk came out to wave us on our merry way as we walked the route. Shopkeepers stood outside their windows to take it all in while Marta ran up and down the street capturing it all. After that it was just a case of cleaning up, and going home to get ready for the Fidget Feet show that night...