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

Watch this space...

Taking a stroll in Trim is one of our great luxuries; huge green spaces, flowers everywhere, a big lively river, stunning heritage buildings... and now art on walls! How exciting to see local talent Meghan Quinn & John Gray given a blank canvas to add more colour to our town! We have been marvelling at their recent murals and had the privilege to follow their progress.



Their reconstruction of the old Market street is quite spectacular, yet delivered in a naive and nostalgic style that will enchant tourists no end. As for their giant Gulliver, finished just on time for the Trim Swift Festival, it not only represents our cultural heritage and the legacy of our famous writer, but also embodies the quirkiness and resourcefulness of our artists: using disaffected buildings and turning them into something beautiful and relevant.



This is something that the Irish artists have been campaigning for in the past years* and we feel it is an important part of moving on from the damage left by the recession. Like turning wounds into well-healed scars. The support of local authorities and business owners is invaluable in this process: last year, we were allowed the use of a restaurant for the Big End Breakfast, organised by Martin Tighe. This was a perfect example of the successful collaboration between business and artists: empty premises became a lively stage for performance, community encounters and delicious food! Other community groups are currently being helped along, again not with cash but with space. Space and time are our most valuable and unattainable tools. Without them, we cannot produce, we cannot entertain, we cannot survive.

With space and time, we can offer the magic, the wonder, the beauty, the laughter, the moving and the exciting that will delight locals and make tourists say “I'll have to go to Trim and see that!”

Just like Meghan and John's murals.


* See the National Campaign for the Arts for more info: http://www.ncfa.ie/