Growing Up in the Big Smoke, Unrhymed and Acapella

Growing Up in the Big Smoke, Unrhymed and Acapella is a memoir of growing up in Dublin as a child of the nineteen-sixties, a teenager of the nineteen-seventies, and a young woman of the nineteen-eighties, a memoir that captures the prevailing social and cultural norms of those decades. You remember – First Confession, First Holy Communion, Confirmation, National School, scary nuns, discos, the Leaving Certificate, careers for girls, blah, blah, blah.

Big Smoke was written by Berni Dwan and directed by new young talent, Carmen Ortiz Victorino. Dramatic narration was performed by Adrianne Murphy and Tara Power. Big Smoke reflects youth rather than perfection, and hence, is all about fun participation and not about flawless performances, because, as poet John Keats concluded in his great poem, Ode to a Grecian Urn, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Lots of wonderful young people were involved in this production. You will hear boy soprano, Conor Byrne and button accordion player, Alannah Clarke-White. Transition Year students from Marino College took part in poetry and singing workshops with Abimbola Olorire and UCD student, Faith Olasogba. They are Zarah-Liya Furjun Doollee, Simina Cicea, Julia Golebieska, Simona Kozireva, and Mariam Kheladze, and you will hear their voices throughout, as well as those of Sophie Walsh and Alannah Clarke-White from Edmund Rice College. Audio production was managed by Declan McGlade, who was assisted with special sound effects by Oisín Clarke-White from Edmund Rice College. Marino College Transition Year teacher Sarah-Jane O’Connor, as always, is an enthusiastic supporter.

Big Smoke was made with the support of Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee

First broadcast on Friday afternoon, January 10th at 3.30pm.