Direct Provision under the spotlight at Druid

The controversial subject of Direct Provision and how Ireland treats people seeking asylum in this country will be explored this Saturday night in Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre.

Hostel 16 is a work in progress by Fionnuala Gygax, a recent graduate of Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College who was awarded an Emerging Artist Residency with Druid Theatre Company to help her develop this work.

“I originally wrote the script as a final-year college project and then decided to apply for this residency. As it progressed, we got steeped in it,” she says, referring to her collaborators, Danielle Galligan, a recent graduate from the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art, and Ailish Leavy who, like Fionnuala, graduated in Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College

The three are currently in the company’s headquarters at Druid Lane, where they are working on the piece which “is such a big story of our time”.

The original script, Seekers, written for Fionnuala’s final college exams and explored the notion of how our identity is shaped by the physical spaces and architecture around us.

“And if you don’t have that space to call home, how does it affect your identity?” she asks.

As she was pondering this issue, Direct Provision – under which asylum seekers are forced to live in hotels and hostels, unable to work or go to college, and paid a tiny stipend – was being explored on radio via a series of interviews.

Fionnuala decided to meld the two themes together.

“I wrote the play quite fast and have been developing it since,” she says.

While she’ll “never really know what it’s like to be in Direct Provision”, Fionnuala and her collaborators, Danielle and Ailish have researched the subject thoroughly. The result is a work featuring 10 characters, all living in a Direct Provision Hostel.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.