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The Determinator

The junior drama group performed "The Determinator", written and directed by Leslie Lalor, last Thursday, to a full house. The appreciative audience greatly enjoyed the freshness and humour of the script and the brilliant performances of the cast.

Drawing on the best traditions of pantomime, Ms Lalor crafted a production which could cope with a cast of thousands (well 38 anyway) by creating little sideshows to the main plot in which the tyrranical ruler (The Determinator) has overthrown the fair and good Princess and the characters are either goodies trying to restore her or baddies trying to stop them.

Some of the scenes had the audience in roars of laughter (Who, What, I Don't Know?) and screams of appreciation greeted the three "bimbos" (Niamh Mitchell, Saoirse Hickey, Sophie Higgs) every time they appeared with their brilliant parody of the mid-atlantic "I'm like, oh my God, you know what I mean, hello.." tradition. (It was a parody, right girls?).

A production like this demands dedicated rehearsal, set construction, costume design and manufacture, organisation, ticket sales, sound and prop control, etc. and huge gratitude is due to all who contributed, especially to actor Bosco Hogan and Leslie's daughter Niamh Hogan for their help.

It was great fun doing the play which was very successful and raised a lot of money. There was great acting by Romano Fusciardi and Jack Hickey. My favourite part of the play was when Romano (Walter Wolf) was trying to chat up Siobhan Margolis (Princess Dedalus). There were many more really good performances which were too many to mention here. The whole drama cast would just like to say thank you to our director, Leslie Lalor, Niam Hogan, assistant director, Louise Blakely and Ruth Senior, set designers. Click on the pictures to see larger versions.

Europe Day in the Library

Europe Day in the library this year was a great success. With the 10 new member states of the European Union, the emphasis was very much on these new countries and Ireland's presidency. There were two major quizes about Europe, one to do with the Irish presidency, the other to do with the European Union in general. Classes from Forms 1, 2 and 3 all visited the library to watch an informative video and to enter the quizes, the most popular of which was the simple flag quiz. The library was certainly visited by many people that week! Thanks to Mrs King for organising it and to all the people who helped out.

Trinity College Foundation Scholars

Congratulations to past pupils Nicholas Nash, Howard Thom and Sean O hEigeartaigh who have been elected Foundation Scholars by Trinity College, Dublin.

Humourfit Theatre visit

On Monday of this week, Form 3 had the pleasure of a visit from a three person theatre company. The visit was part of our SPHE course and the main act was centred around the part alcohol plays in youth culture today. It was mostly portrayed by one actor and was called "Helen's Story".

I had no idea what to expect at first but the acting was amazing and the context was relevant to our lives. The director introduced the play as "food for thought" and as Helen brought us through the consequences of her alcohol affected actions, it definitely gave everyone something to think about.

The production ended on a lighter note with some comic rhyme from the director. We all enjoyed this experience.

Hannah Jennings