KEGS DRAMA

Thursday 30th and Friday 31st January.

 

A double bill questioning technology and morality.

 

Tickets £5 for both shows

 

Chatroom

 

The six teenagers in Chatroom never meet each other, they just communicate (often with strong language) via the internet; conversations range in subject from Britney Spears to Willy Wonka to suicide. Jim is depressed and talks of ending his life and Eva and William do their utmost to persuade him to carry out his threat. From this chilling premise Enda Walsh has forged a funny, compelling and uplifting play which tackles some of the issues of teenage life head-on and with great understanding.

 

I chose to direct this play after reading about the death of 14 year old Hannah Smith in August who killed herself following a tirade of on-line abuse on Ask F.M.  Her death highlighted the prolific dangers of on-line activity and, according to a recent report from the NSPCC, almost one in five children who use social networking sites had bad experiences last year.

 

Sadly, all too often, as family members or friends, we often have very little idea of what young people are doing in their rooms and how we can help. The charity ‘Youngminds’ suggests that "The answer is not to close these sites down but to help young people develop resilience and understanding of themselves and their needs, and to help them find ways of meeting those needs in a better way". The hope is that this play helps in raising awareness of this issue.

 

A Number

Caryl Churchill’s main theme when writing this play was the idea of self. ‘A Number’ is set in a world where human cloning has become a reality and two genetically identical men confront their father in separate, chilling encounters, each looking for explanations into their shared past - and receiving disturbing answers that neither want to hear. However, this play is not "about" cloning, but rather a play that includes cloning to explore human identity.