PRMAR08

Outstanding Children's Opera in Birr
By
Rosalind Fanning

"Bug Off" is probably something some bad kids would like to say to teachers who give them loads of homework - but there were only good kids in last Friday's performance of a short opera for children, called Bug Off!! It was performed by about fifty, VERY GOOD children INDEED, from St. Brendan's Primary School for Boys and Mercy Primary School for Girls, with that rather fine baritone fellow, also from Birr, John Molloy.

The charming little opera was composed and conducted by Stephen Deazley, a Belfast man now from Scotland. Bug Off!! has been performed with schoolchildren seventeen times in the North of Ireland; once at the Washington National Opera, Washington DC, USA, and once in the Republic of Ireland, at the Birr Theatre & Arts Centre.

It all began back in January. At the first stage, the designers from the Opera Theatre Company's outreach and education programme spent a day with the schoolteachers in Birr who would be coaching the children in the songs and making of the masks - CDs and templates were provided but it was up to the pupils to turn the basics into their own art through their teachers' guidance.

Excitement had been building as posters went up around town and the spectacular 'bug' masks went on display in a Main Street shop window. Through the first week of March, the children of 3rd and 4th classes were rehearsing at the theatre with the OTC team, from 9.30-2.30, culminating in the matinée and evening performances on Friday. It was a tremendous experience for all involved, to workshop with OTC, 'the busiest professional opera company on this island', having so far performed in over one hundred cities towns and villages, across the thirty-two counties. John Molloy is one of many fine young professionals who have performed with the company, through the Young Associate Artists' Programme.

"The Birr Stage Guild was looking for something to do with local children, for our 50th anniversary", said Maureen de Forge. "We'd looked at a couple of different ideas and then came back to The Opera Theatre Company." The OTC is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland but outreach education projects like this are funded locally. The project has cost them around €10,000 which has been funded by Birr Theatre & Arts Centre and with great support from Offaly Country Council Arts Office, Birr Credit Union, Birr Lions Club, and The Emporium at The Stables. A little more sponsorship to break-even would be great, hinted Maureen.

Through a series of twelve scenes in Bug Off!!, the children danced, moved, acted, and sang wonderfully descriptive songs to somewhat atonal music which lent, at times, a hint of menace to the tale, (like many a good fairytale.) The story begins with the mysterious Dreamweaver, played as a rather handsome, sparkly, big black bug by John Molloy. Dreamweaver puts a spell on a sleeping boy named Gregory who wakes up to discover he has been turned into a beetle and has six legs. Naturally, that first morning, he no longer has any interest in breakfast cereals but prefers to raid the bin for banana skins and other insect-sustaining rot. Along comes the school bus, but as he cannot fit through the doors, he takes to the sky on purple wings and flies above it along the route to school. Lessons begin with maths which now Gregory excels in, due to the fact that 'six' is the answer to all the questions and six is the number of his legs. But the ending is not a happy one for 'Bug Boy'. When he cannot help shredding the playground football, the children call in the exterminator (they're a 'vicious' bunch, those sports fans!) and he ends up in a science jar.

Stephen Deazley the musical composer, though not the lyricist, said the writer, Kafka was his inspiration for the commission, (hence the distinctly 'surreal' quality of the opera). But this didn't bother the Birr children, they got right into the gleeful telling of a misfit in an homogenised world: "Rip off the wings!" they shouted"; "A boy is a boy but a beetle is a beetle," they sang, "...it's simply a question of black and white..." they shrugged as he was finally cornered by the wild-haired insect killer. Stephen explained this tale as being "loosely based on the idea of transformation and change" and although written specifically for this young age group to perform, it certainly had humour and resonance for adults as well as the very appreciative audience of mostly children.

John Molloy, always a consummate professional, played a number of different roles through the opera, each superbly characterised in his rich, resonant, baritone voice. His quick changes took place behind a tall-legged, colourful, insect-eyed 'tool box' while the children carried the performance in unified chorus and mime. He became Beetle Boy's prim father, then a cowboy-hatted school teacher (who was a cross between a gay showman and ruthless talk-show host). His portrayal of the long-legged, 'mad-scientist' exterminator was also brilliant and very funny. His interactions - even his occasional surprise pounces - were well handled by the children. They had memorised the tricky lyrics and co-ordinated movements excellently, with confidence. Many gave wonderful individual characterisations too. Dressed in black throughout the opera, the children were transformed at the end as they donned their masks, surrounding the fainted exterminator, whose sparkly fumes had metamorphosed them all into his worse nightmare: a cloud of colourful bugs! The vibrancy, style and colour of their gorgeous bug masks gave a striking and wonderful visual to the finale of this marvellous production. It will go down as one of the many highlights of the fiftieth anniversary of The Birr Stage Guild, and no doubt, in turn, the experience will have encouraged a good number of the children to take to the stage to entertain us in future plays, musicals and operas.