A new play exploring young men's passion for high-powered cars is to be brought to life in an innovative new drive-in theatre experience in Cork.
The Performance Corporation's Drive-By will see drivers descend on the southern city's docks at night-time to watch a play exploring the phenomenon of backroad racers from the security of their own cars.
Director Jo Mangan said the audience would drive up in their own cars to view the performance on the docks. "The actors are all wired up and they will be driving around. We have been working closely with an action director to coordinate all their moves," she said.
The audience in their cars will be able to hear the actors including Tadgh Murphy, Ailish Symons and Aidan Turner through an infra-red system linking into their vehicle's radios.
She added: "With the radio mikes, the actors can have a quiet conversation in their cars and we can hear them in our car as if they were in there with us."
Ms Mangan, whose other works include Candide and Dr Ledbetter's Experiment, said the first 20 minutes of the performance would be action-packed as the audience are drawn in to the lives of speed freaks and drifters behind the wheels of their cars.
"We really are interested in exploring the subculture," she said, adding many people spend vast amounts of money modifying their cars. "People of that age feel invincible, they feel they are great drivers and their cars are stuck to the roads."
Ms Mangan said they were not trying to preach to people through the play but simply explore the culture. "We did go out with young guys on roads, it was late at night and it was absolutely terrifying," she said.
"It is easy to be judgmental about what they do because of the terrible consequences they have." As the play descends into darkness interviews with people from the Inishowen Peninsula in Co Donegal who have been affected by a number of road tragedies will be piped into the cars in the audience.