THIS PLAY takes a while to hot up as a piece of theatre, but drama is only part of its intent. TEAM Theatre's production of Two Houses is designed to help children think and talk about property relations in rural Ireland in the pre-Famine period.
Yes, you read that right. Throughout Friday morning's performance at The Ark, eight to 12 year old hands were shooting into the air and kids were saying their piece about rent, potatoes and the ways and means of eviction.
A lively half hour workshop session then saw the cast ad lib brilliantly, based on the kids' suggestions for alternative actions by landlord, bailiff and tenants.
TEAM has produced John McArdle's play twice before in the last 12 years. Intriguingly, it invites the audience to plot an eviction with the friendly bailiff before showing us the lives of the tenants whose home is at risk. On the face of it, it works.
However, by positing an opposition between the children's rational engagement with the modern sounding bailiff and their emotional sympathy for the poor, drink loving, superstitious McBrides, Two Houses arguably loads the deck for the landlord.
The kids end up discussing the story in a way that accepts as given that the rent must and should, somehow, be paid.
