Malacoda’s Bridge – The Ninth Circle of Hell – Review by Robert Dooley

The Gaiety School of Acting in collaboration with Southern Illinois University School of Music

1 + 2 Jun | 7pm | Boys School

They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, Malacoda’s Bridge: The Ninth Circle of Hell however was constructed in just two weeks. A joint initiative between the music department at Southern Illinois University and the Gaiety School of Acting brought 18 music students to Dublin to develop, write and score an original play. A tall order to say the least.

Malacoda’s Bridge is the story of Reya and her baby, trying to escape bombings for the west. We are shown not only the danger presented from the landscape, but also from each other through theft and worse. Focussing on the human cost and challenging a westernised media’s view of immigrants from the likes of Syria, the play must be commended for having such a clear and identifiable message.

The unique environment of the Boys School in Smock Alley is used to great effect. The ramps the audience have to walk down to get to their seats, are used as mountains for the cast to scale. There is a constant flurry of activity as the actors move from the central space to the ‘mountains’, which injects life into proceedings.

Bearing in mind that most of the cast had never acted before, most acquit themselves well for a first time performance in no doubt intimidating circumstances. It would be remiss not to make a point of an excellent performance from Jackie Blackburn who plays the main character of Reya. She gave an engrossing performance and was extremely watchable. A real talent.

The high point would of course be the music, given the cast’s background. The opening piece had cast members placed at different points throughout the auditorium filling the space with a cacophony of sound. My only regret is that there wasn’t more of this, as only once did we hear the full potential of the sound they could create.

On the whole, I enjoyed Malacoda’s Bridge. Despite deficiencies at times in dialogue it is astounding to think that this hadn’t even been conceived two weeks ago. The students were given a platform for their creativity to run wild and it heralded this result. I can only hope that when they return home they continue their creative output as if this is what two weeks can produce, I’d love to see what they could do with a bit more time.