Two plays, two stories. Each starts out at the same time on the stage. One is oblivious to the other. One play fights to be the story that we hear and see. The other will be the one unheard and forgotten. Neither the actors nor the audience knows which play will take control of the stage. No one knows which story will be told in its entirety until the night is over, until the victorious have written the history.

With the support of the Arts Council’s Young Ensembles Scheme, KYT devised this experimental work exploring the politics of forgetting.

This was part of the NT connections festival. We performed in Newbridge and Belfast. Directed by Peter Hussey.

This was the 4th time the youth theatre have staged the play since 2003. This production explored the dramatic rise of an ambitious couple, hungry for control, desperate to be respected, and ruthless in their pursuit of dominace. It mirrored events on the political world today, from the triumph of far-right leaders in Europe, to the USA, Turkey and North Korea.

By the Bog of Cats is Marina Carr’s searing tragedy inspired by Euripides’ Medea and set in the Irish midlands. Spurned by the man she loves Hester Swaine lives as an outcast on the edge of the bog from where most of the settled community want her gone. Faced with the loss of her home and her only child, Hester conjures a desperate and tragic plan to revenge all those who rejected her.