You might be confused into thinking it's Hallowe'en when you read about the opening production at the new Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire. Full of Celtic spirits such as puccas, banshees, tree sprites and many others, The Quest of the Good People is based on the collected tales of W.B. Yeats, and it begins its three-week run with a charity gala event next Thursday. "I was surprised that the tales collected by Yeats weren't put on the stage over here in the way that the Grimms' tales are. The interesting thing about them is that they are left untouched and haven't been sanitised. People die in them. Unpleasant and great things happen - and children, on the whole, love these elements," says Karen Louise Hebden, artistic director of the Pavilion Theatre.
English-born Hebden believes that many Irish people have misplaced impressions of Yeats's work from their schooldays. Go along to this energetic show staged in the round with elements of dance, physical theatre, mime and song (Yeats's poems set to music) and you'll change your mind, she suggests. One of the principal tales in Quest is that of a group of fairies (Yeats likened them to fallen angels) who must do three good deeds to return to heaven. They lost their place there during Lucifer's revolution but they weren't quite bad enough to go to hell.
Choreographer Caimin Collins assured me that there are no Riverdance elements and the show doesn't have a conventional Celtic visual look. By which he means no shamrockery, I suspect. Mythic cycles there are, however: princes and beautiful women who turn into butterflies. At one point the entire stage is transformed into a giant chessboard on which the children in the audience are invited to become castles and pawns. Definitely not your traditional Christmas fare.
The Quest of the Good People is suitable for everyone from age six and upwards. It runs next Thursday until December 23rd (excluding Sundays and Mondays), and then from December 27th to January 6th (Tuesday -Saturday). Shows at 8 p.m.; some shows also at 4 p.m./6 p.m. Tickets: £8-£16 (01-2312929)