As a nation we spent just over €1,300 per household last Christmas, and our children seem to have little concept of the value of money.
“With Boy with a Suitcase, a new play from Barnstorm, children will see there are children in other parts of the world with nothing, and who face real dangers,” said Patricia Drennan, PRO for Barnstorm Theatre Company.
Boy with a Suitcase is suitable for children as young as eight years old, the beginning of the ‘games console years’, and there’s many a parent who’d welcome a respite in the relentless begging for more computer games. Boy with a Suitcase is just the production to make children think twice. ‘The lovely thing about this story is that the thing which helps Naz, the 12-year-old war refugee, is the stories that his father told him, stories which cost nothing except time.’ The writer of this play, Mike Kenny is a parent, an actor and an award-winning playwright. A trained teacher, he stayed at home to educate his own son when he became school-phobic at the age of seven. He has written in excess of 50 plays for children of all ages and is included in the list of Britain’s top ten playwrights.
The story is entertaining and a high energy production, choreographed by Monika Bieniek (choreographer for the St Patrick's Festival in Dublin 2008 with Institute of Art, Design and Technology ) makes full use of Carol Betera’s innovative set which transports us seamlessly on an exciting voyage from refugee camp, to mountain escape, to city slum, to sea journey and on to safety. Ben Samuels, on-stage musician and composer, has created a multi-layered live music-scape (He most recently was writer and performer with Theatre Tonic, London and performed in The Gravity Project, which toured the UK.
Boy with a Suitcase is running this week at the Watergate Theatre with schools shows during the week and a Saturday matinee performance at 3.30pm Special Family Offer: €20 for up to four tickets for Saturday 28. A Gala show takes place at 7.30pm. Tickets cost €10 and are available from the Watergate Theatre on (056 )-7761674.
