Two local young men, Kenneth Doran from Sundale and Liam Wilson Smyth from Fettercairn first set up their company ‘Class Act’ in 2017, but the partnership started way before that. In 2014 they met through school and both had a similar interest in drama and acting. From this point on, the guys ran drama groups for younger years, directed and wrote plays, acted in school plays and musicals and finally upon graduation each of them winning the schools Drama and Music awards for their Graduating year. After this, the two both applied to the same college and spent a year and a half training as actors and then chose to create this theatre company to show case all of the things they have learnt in their years of creating and being involved in theatre.
The goal of Class Act theatre is two things, firstly to showcase the work of young theater practitioners ranging from writers, lighting designers, actors and so on. Secondly that every show staged is nothing less than a ‘Class Act’.
Their first production”20 Seconds” was written last year and based on the idea of putting two people in an enclosed space and simply watching the story unfold. Through much collaboration and many weeks of writing together Liam and Ken and produced the play where we see two men who become stuck in an elevator and from then on the world inside the elevator becomes tense and while there are laughs and jokes no secrets can be kept when two people find themselves with no escape.
The play focuses on the human condition and brings up many themes that everyone today deals with and hears about on a daily basis such as social expectations, political correctness, and always wanting to live life in the moment.
The play is a dark comedy with dark undertones with an overall light feel to the piece and the eventual message we want to share with this play is “If there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to do, but haven’t, why not?” and “What would you do if you could do anything?”
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20 Seconds runs from Tues 5 –Thurs 7 June at the Civic Studio
Tickets from €8 and the lads would love YOUR local support!
