“We didn’t see very many plays that appealed to young people so we adopted the ethos ‘attempting to lower the age demographic of the Irish theatre audience’,” says actor Amilia Stewart, about why she started the theatre company Bitter Like a Lemon with writer Lee Coffey.
“Any plays that we have produced so far all run with the same themes – Dublin-based and . . . the narrative is very film-based because so many young people like to go to the cinema but they don’t seem to come to the theatre as much,” she told Róisín Ingle, presenter of the Róisín Meets podcast.
Stewart, who has a steady gig playing Katy O'Brien in Fair City, is starring in the play Murder of Crows alongside Katie Honan and Aisling O'Mara at The Theatre Upstairs in Dublin City Centre. She says there is an appetite for more youth theatre.
“Most of the people that we have coming to the theatre to see our plays are from youth groups, who have said they wouldn’t mind coming to see more if it was like that.”
According to O’Mara, the problem is that young people do not see themselves on stage.
“With sitcoms or a film you can see yourself represented, so with theatre you want to see yourself represented. You want to see emotions and feelings, and the beautiful thing about theatre is that it’s so visceral and it’s in front of you and you can feel it,” she said.
This year has "propelled us into the future", says O'Mara, and with television shows such as RTÉ's Can't Cope, Won't Cope, "it feels as if the clock is turning and progress is being made making new work for young people."
Honan says being part of new writing and young people making theatre right now is “really exciting”, and there is a real sense of camaraderie amongst those doing it.
Murder of Crows concerns three teenage girls and deals with the issues affecting them, but Stewart says older audiences can also learn things from youth theatre productions.
“I think it will appeal to parents too,” she says. “It might remind them what it’s like to be teenagers.”
To hear Amilia Stewart, Aisling O’Mara and Katie Honan, stars of Murder of Crows, in conversation with Róisín Ingle, go to Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or irishtimes.com
Murder of Crows runs at the Theatre Upstairs, 10-11 Eden Quay, Dublin 1 from December 2nd-17th
