1 in 5

Written By: Marina Carr, Rosemary Jenkinson, Nicola McCartney and Morna Regan
Directed By: Paula McFetridge
Production Premiere: 24th November 2011 in the Old Union Workhouse, Limavady (now Roe Valley Hospital)

A site-specific promenade event combining live music, film installation and original drama in response to the European year for combatting poverty and social exclusion 2010, staged as part of homeless awareness week 2011.

Around 341,000 people live below the poverty line in Northern Ireland today.

Approximately 1 in 5 of the population

Over 100,000 are children

Staged in the former Limavady workhouse meet ghosts of the past alongside the invisible people of today.

100 audience members are divided into 4 groups and led through the nooks and crannies of the former Limavady workhouse including the haunted dormitories, the mass pauper grave, the corrugated iron outbuildings and the intimidating governor’s office.

The short plays explore body snatching, questionable medical interventions, restorative justice, corruption, class oppression and homelessness intercut by Slinky, an effervescent young woman who shares her experience of poverty, the merits of a Cheryl Cole diet and the best way to steal nappies.

Shocking, charming, entertaining and informative.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Project composer Fionnuala Fagan led an outreach project to explore the stories and issues faced by a range of people living in The Glen’s Community, Limavady. Fionnuala created a song for installation using the actual words from each interview juxtaposed with a melodic arrangement of the song Sarah Jane. This song was composed by the late blind fiddler and composer Jimmy McCurry who died in the Limavady workhouse in 1910.

A series of workshops led by Carol Moore in Limavady High School and the University of Ulster resulted in 6 short films on contemporary poverty that featured in the production. Themes included the work of the Salvation Army in tackling poverty, a family view of life on the dole, poverty through the eyes of a person experiencing homelessness, how relative poverty is affecting pupils at Limavady High School, and how Limavady Council is proactive in tackling poverty in the community.

…an outstanding production, a real theatrical experience, imaginative, challenging and leaving the audience with so much to take home and think about, what theatre should be doing

Kieran Lagan
…the perfect venue and of course, Paula McFetridge is pedigree in this area of site-specific theatre”

Jane Coyle, BBC Arts Review

CREATIVE TEAM

Cast
Stephanie Donaghue, Samantha Heaney, Vincent Higgins, Abigail McGibbon, Samuel McMenamin, Joanne McNulty, Carol Moore and Ciarán Nolan

Original Music by Fionnuala Fagan

Set Designer - Stuart Marshall

Lighting Designer - Conleth White

Costume Designer - Rosie Moore

Production Manager / Sound Designer James Kennedy

Stage Manager - Jacqueline O’Hagan

Project Assistant - Lisa Marie Cooke

Graduate Director - Emma Copland

Director of Photography - Mark Garrett

Editor - Frank Martin

Camera Assistant - Riley Garrett

Sound Recordist - David Kilpatrick

Sound Assistant - Conor Kilpatrick

Musician - Lucy Kerr

Associate Lighting Designer - Nel Conneally

General Manager - Lyndsey Jackson

Production Assistant - Fionnuala Kennedy

PAST PERFORMANCES

**Nicola McCartney’s short play Fever was subsequently revived:**

Conflicting Narratives August 2024 at Black Mountain Shared Space
with Shannen Lofthouse and Carol Moore
Digital Led Theatre, Future Screens NI at Lyric Theatre July 2021
with Shannen Lofthouse and Carol Moore
Falls Community Council September 2020
with Rachel Galloway and Carol Moore
Stephanie Donaghue and Carol Moore in
Ballymena Academy, March
15-minute Festival, Accidental Theatre, May
‘Hate & Me’ Conference, Unison, November