Belfast’s Prime Cut Productions is bringing their award-winning and critically acclaimed production, Removed, to Adelaide for the DreamBIG Children’s Festival this May.
Established in 1992, Prime Cut Productions is an independent theatre company, based in Belfast, committed to producing excellent contemporary theatre that is accessible and entertaining.
Removed is a funny, moving and thought-provoking insight into the experiences of Adam, a young man living within the state care system. It is not the story of any one individual, but rather an amalgam of the many stories of young people with care experience, all very real and very important.
Ahead of their trip to Adelaide to perform Removed, Prime Cut Productions Artistic Director Emma Jordan and Executive Producer Una NicEoin caught up with me to discuss the show and its theme, and to share a little insight into how Prime Cut Productions was developed.
“Prime Cut has been going for three decades now, and is based in Belfast in the North of Ireland. We have a long history of staging international works that speak to the issues that have plagued our home both pre and post the conflict. I think that it’s interesting how our work has evolved and has become more preoccupied with issues around identity, as some of your readers may have witnessed when we were last in Adelaide with our production of Scorch by Stacey Gregg, which told the story of a young person struggling with issues around gender. If we have a running thread through our work I think that it is always in reaction to what we see around us. It’s always so heartening that oftentimes the most ‘local’ storytelling is the one that chimes most resonantly with international audiences, like our production of Removed by Finn Kennedy.”
Emma Jordan and Una NicEoin discussed how important it is to open the door to conversations around themes such as state care systems.
“The genesis of the idea to commission Removed was in reaction to a community project which we were running with young people in care – due to issues around security and health and safety, the young people taking part in that project weren’t able to publicly share their experiences. Their stories had so much to teach us and it was so important to bear witness to their truth that we brought Finn on board to research and develop Removed based on their sharings, working in partnership with VOYPIC (Voice of Young People In Care). The impact of the play, both for the participants and the audiences, has been awesome in the true sense of that word. The play has influenced systemic change, and that is something which we are all very proud of.”
With a growing number of young people spending time in the state care system and foster homes, I asked how this production has been received wherever it has been performed.
“To our absolute delight, Removed has been received wonderfully throughout its life. As we previously mentioned, we commissioned Removed in order to give a platform to our participants so their stories could be told. Initially we worked with our co-producers Young At Art for a short run at the Belfast’s Children’s Festival. That’s when things started to take off in a way we had never imagined. Going down two separate routes of presentation, Removed quickly started to make its presence felt. We were approached by Dublin Theatre Festival for a run in the 2019 festival, and shortly thereafter by Babaro for the Galway International Children’s Festival. This was followed by selection at IPAY (International Performing Arts for Youth) Showcase Philadelphia in January 2020 – we were one of only two shows from the island of Ireland. We were approached by the Traverse for a run at Edinburgh 2020, and the future looked bright! And then the pandemic…. and suddenly it all started to seem like this might be the end of the road for Removed, like for so much else. Then Culture Ireland supported the making of a digital version, which featured in the Traverse 3 online showcase that year as well as Culture Ireland’s SEODA Showcase. All of this directly led to a European Tour earlier this year and then to us coming to Adelaide.
“Going back in time to Autumn 2019, Removed was also presented in very different ways to audiences across the island of Ireland. Stripped back to its essentials, an outreach tour featured Conor O’Donnell (aka Adam) performing to people in a variety of settings, including church halls, community centres and schools. Some were prospective adoptive or foster parents, some in assisted living, others still working in the care system. This culminated in Removed being the closing event of the TUSLA (Irelands Child and Family Agency) 2020 conference, launching the 2020 EPIC (Enabling People in Care) Care Week Celebration and being utilised as a training tool for youth and social workers in Northern Ireland. If anyone had told us at the start of the journey that even a fraction of this would happen, we’d have laughed – who could ever have foreseen it? We can never be more grateful to our audiences for embracing the show, and to our partners from the very start VOYPIC, without whom we could never have made Removed.”
Removed will be a part of the DreamBIG Children’s Festival this May, and its performance in Adelaide will also be its Australian premiere.
“One of the best things about Removed has always been the conversations with audiences after the show, and there have been many! It’s one of those shows that generates post-show discussion naturally and organically, and we have been privileged to have so many people share their experiences and opinions with us. From Belfast to Dublin, Philadelphia to Brussels, the Hague to Paris, we’ve heard stories that are of course shaped by their contexts but that share some startling commonalities. And of course, we hope that this will also be the case in Adelaide. Removed has never been a show you just go and present, a show you go and perform – it’s the start of a conversation, a glimpse into the lives of many whose stories have been unheard for far too long, a provocation for us all to do and know a little better. And of course, we are delighted and excited to be returning to Adelaide after six years. It’s a brilliant city and we can’t wait!”
Removed, which is part of the DreamBIG Children’s Festival, will be at the Dunstan Playhouse on Saturday 27 May at 12.45pm. Tickets and further information can be found at https://dreambig.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/removed .
Interview by Ben Stefanoff
Photo credit: Hi Jump Design
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