Giant Wolf Youth Theatre present a night of grim and poetry

“IT’S PART horror, part thriller, part comedy, filled with evocative language and fun imagery, as well as some classic Giant Wolf movement and dance.”

Giant Wolf Youth Theatre presents a night of grim and beautiful poetry, a look into the genius and madness of Edgar Allan Poe. Audiences are encouraged to be “horrified” by the tales of ‘The Telltale Heart’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, and ‘The Masque of the Red Death’.

They are also expected to be ‘awed’ by the wondrous language in the iconic poem ‘The Raven’. Since their last production of ‘Clyt’, the group devised a new show, ‘Is Eireannch Muid?’

This show was an exploration of what it meant to them to be Irish. They did many workshops and writing exercises to create the piece. They also experimented more with audiovisual content with this production, which was a “fun challenge”, according to group leader Lloyd Collins.

The group participated in the Drama House festival in Carlow in May, which involved Giant Wolf joining several other youth theatres for a weekend-long trip.

Giant Wolf students performed the play there and took part in many workshops to learn new skills.

For the past few weeks they have been working on Nightfall, which is a play they originally performed in 2023. After the Drama House festival, Giant Wolf was planning on what to bring to Germany this year; they have been invited to InterTWINed, an international youth theatre festival happening in Germany in September.

When they thought back to which shows they had the most fun working on, they decided it was ‘Nightfall’.

The group are all “more experienced” now, and they thought there was enough fun material in ‘Nightfall’ that would allow them to challenge themselves and bring something “fun and exciting” to Germany.

So far Giant Wolf has had a “great time” working on movement. There is much “fun dancing” that happens in ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, as there is a masquerade ball.

Figuring out a ballroom dance is “great fun”. “I also love working on ‘The Raven’,” beams Tom Foley.

The group has a complicated choral speaking poem that requires much precision to get right, so “it’s a fun challenge”. Challenges for Giant Wolf in this production so far have included the script, which is “quite difficult in terms of its language – Poe rarely uses a simple word when a more flowery, more complicated one will do!” So there has been some work in untangling the language so they all understand what is being said.

Beyond that, there is much work physically in creating the dances and movement pieces, and the heat recently has made rehearsing “a bit rougher” than it usually is.

Tom and Lloyd would like to thank Michael Lynchecaun of Tallaght Theatre for his support with this production: “he’s been such a joy to work with and has really made us feel at home!”

‘Nightfall’ performs in the Tallaght Theatre on August 28 and 29 at 7pm; tickets are available on Eventbrite.