Branar’s unique approach brings 1916 to life for kids

Jonathan Gunning, best known as a member of the travelling comedy duo, the Gombeens, will be performing in Maloney's Dream alongside his fellow Gombeen Miquel Barcelo. The Branar production, featuring music and puppets, has an ensemble cast of six.

placeholder image — Jonathan Gunning, best known as a member of the travelling comedy duo, the Gombeens, will be performing in Maloney's Dream alongside his fellow Gombeen Miquel Barcelo. The Branar production, featuring music and puppets, has an ensemble cast of six.

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Branar Téatar do Pháistí will offer its unique take on the 1916 Rising in its latest show, Maloney’s Dream /Brionglóid Maloney, which will be staged in Spring.

This unique drama, which has been in development since earlier this year, will premiere in the City’s Town Hall Theatre on April 7, before embarking on an 11-venue nationwide tour, which will include four venues in Dublin.

The Galway company has also launched an interactive website for the new production which is specifically aimed at children but which will also be open to the general public.

The play combines physical performance with the original live music and puppetry that has become a distinctive feature of Branar’s shows.

Created for young audiences aged eight and upwards, Maloney’s Dream tells how one man’s dream collides with the birth of a nation.

It’s set during Easter week 1916 when Thaddeus Maloney returns home to realise his ambition of opening a new hotel on Easter Monday on Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street). Little by little, the events of that historic week impact on the hotel’s opening, but the spark that ignited Maloney’s dream, never truly goes out.

"We’re exploring what life was like for the ordinary people in Dublin during what we now know was an extraordinary period in Ireland’s history,” says Branar’s director Marc MacLochlainn, who is directing the six-strong ensemble cast for Maloney’s Dream.

Using diary entries and recorded personal accounts, Branar will explore the impact of the Easter Rising on the lives of ordinary people. Its aim is to bring the stories of ordinary human beings to the foreground.

Branar has also created a unique online resource to tie in with the stage show. A dedicated website was launched last September to provide young audiences, teachers and schools with pre and post-show engagement activities. This website has already received 65,000 visits a month. It features videos, images and resources, including letters written at the time. There are also activities that can be downloaded as well as lesson plans and information that brings the period to life for children. The site offer teachers and pupils an opportunity to upload their own creative responses to the history of the period and to the show.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.