A professional oboe player based in London, Maria Young returned to her native Cork seven years ago with a notion of making the arts accessible to young people. Initially, she started bringing music to primary schools. "I didn't know what Theatre in Education (TIE) was but what I was doing just evolved into TIE."
Young now runs Tell Tale, a theatre company which brings drama to primary schools in Co Cork. The emphasis is on "county" because of the lack of exposure to the arts in rural schools. Tell Tale, run on a shoe-string, is currently touring schools with a play about child slave labour in India. After months of research, the company got in touch with Christian Aid (a Third World development agency) and was delighted to come across a true story about a young Indian boy called Nageswhar who was sent to work on carpet looms at the age of seven. Nageswhar, who was rescued by a relief agency when he was 13, is now a social worker whose mission is to expose child slave labour and have it stopped. Tell Tale was told about Nageswhar's experience as an exploited child, and wrote a play about him which succeeds in revealing appalling abuse in a gentle way so as not to frighten the audience of school-goers. The play is suitable for children between five and 12.
On a recent trip to Carrigboy National School in Durrus, west Cork, where the play, interspersed with workshops, was performed for the fourth, fifth and sixth classes, one little girl's response on her evaluation form was "we could send them pictures and pray for them" - a response which Maria Young found particularly touching. Another pupil said: "I knew about child labour before but I never knew it was this bad." "I did not know that the children worked so hard and got paid nothing for it," observed another one of the pupils. One obviously very practical child said "we can try to get them homes, food and drinks and we can also try and stop child labour."
In the past, Tell Tale has performed plays about racism and the travelling community. "This is the first time we've done a true story," says Young. "The whole purpose of the day isn't really to ram a message down the kids' throats. It's much more subtle than that. The aim of the workshops is to gradually get the children thinking about the subject matter. "This particular play has resulted in a very pro-active approach to exploitation. The children do paintings for kids in India with whom they're put in touch. They also write letters to them. This is all part of the follow-up activity that the teachers supervise."
Apart from Young, Tell Tale comprises four other actors: Fiona Hyland, Adrian Scanlon, Neil Pearson and Colman Greehy. A typical day starts at 8 p.m. when Young picks up the actors in her van from an appointed location in the city. Tell Tale, which doesn't have an office, is basically run from Young's van which, apart from the actors, also accommodates the equipment for the stage setting and the stage props. Funding is meagre. The company is funded by Cork County Council, FAS and the National Committee of Development Education. It was refused Arts Council money this year and told the council couldn't justify funding a second TIE company in Cork (the main one is Graffiti), considering that Connaught has no TIE company. "We can just about make a living out of it," says Young. "Each child gives us £2 and the schools subsidise some of our costs. It's hard going but having said that, it is very rewarding work."
Nageswhar recently visited Germany - one of the main countries that imports Indian carpets - and met the Minister for Trade to highlight the exploitation of the young carpet makers. Nageswhar is now something of a hero and Young pointed out that "it's great that we have him on video and can show it to the kids. It makes it more real for them."
The company hopes to bring the play to Dublin in the coming months. In the meantime, Young and her crew are clocking up plenty of mileage visiting primary schools in Munster. Cork County Council is going to facilitate Tell Tale during the summer holidays to bring its play to libraries in the county.
Despite its very serious subject matter, the presentation of this play with its workshops, discussion groups and a takeoff of a Gerry Springer chat show, is interesting and at times quite amusing. The children really got going when Tell Tale set up the chat show element. They revealed an extraordinary level of sophistication and media awareness.
These are the children of the 1990s.
Tell Tale's schools' tour continues until June 31st. For Information: 086 8392321
