The Dead School – Civic Theatre – Review – DATE & TIME: 29 February – 5 March // 8pm

The Dead School tells the tale of two teachers at different stages of life. Raphael Bell is an older man who is disgusted by the decline of morality in the modern age. It is 1975 and people are openly discussing abortion on the radio. He dreams of the past when people respected their elders and the church. Malachy Dudgeon is only starting out in life and he has just got his first job in St. Christopher’s school, teaching the boys in third class. He is struggling to manage them and the kids start to smell blood as he is not able for their pranks and games. These two men struggle to make sense of the world and try to keep themselves out of the depths of depression.

This play is adapted from Patrick McCabe’s book of the same name. The book was published in ’95, three years after his most famous work The Butcher Boy. It was well received and was later adapted for the stage by McCabe himself. This version of the play focused on the tale of the older man Raphael. This new version was adapted and directed by Andrew Flynn and premièred at the Galway Arts Festival last year.

The play is set in the kitchen and front room of a small house, which doubles as a classroom among other settings. For a touring production, the set is quite sturdy looking with three thick walls with a number of doors and stairs at the back of the stage for the characters to exit and enter.

This play has two main characters with Gerard Howard playing Raphael and the ever impressive Jarlath Tivnan playing Malachy. There are also another nine cast members, with each playing school kids, concerned mothers, friends, lovers and a variety of other parts. There is a strong emphasis on the choreography of the piece, with impressive movement of the large cast during the early segments. The story is quite bleak as the two characters move on a steady downward trajectory but McCabe’s graveyard humour underpins it all. This production captures a vision of Ireland starting to think for itself and reject the over powering presence of the church.

Duration – 2 hr 20 mins.

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Presented by Decadent Theatre Company
Written by Patrick McCabe
Adapted and Directed by Andrew Flynn