Examine the System
By Hayden Moore
With over 57,000 students across the country sitting through the dreaded Leaving Certificate, Freshly Ground Theatre tackle the difficulty that students challenge when sitting the exams with their new play ‘Curve’.
Freshly Ground Theatre are a Tallaght based theatre collective who have recently graduated from secondary school, and felt that the Leaving Cert was something that needed to be brought to the Loose End Studio of the Civic Theatre.
They developed ‘Curve’ after running workshops with senior cycle students, and wanted to use the insights gained from that open dialogue with current students about the stress and anxiety that the exams cause to fuel the play.
The production follows a sixth-year student as she battles with the hardships and uncertainties of her final year in school and scrutinises how the exam system effect’s her in terms of mental health and her view of the world.
‘Curve’ isn’t just a play, it’s a movement that has staged #EXAMINETHESYSTEM installations around the city centre including at College Green when English Paper One was taking place, outside the Department of Education, and Dáil Éireann.
Having previously performed the play for one night only in the Loose End Studio back in March, it returned to the Civic to perform six shows on Wednesday, June 20 until Saturday, June 23 with tickets costing €14.
