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Founded in 2009, ANU Productions have been pushing the creative boundaries of immersive theatre in Ireland for years. Having completed thirteen seminal productions, gallery installations and museum interpretations, their most recent venture may just be their most compelling yet. Pals — The Irish at Gallipoli is inspired by the untold stories of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Gallipoli during the First World War. A battalion of contemporaries, friends and team-mates, Pals is their moving story.
In 1915 two hundred men fought shoulder to shoulder in the trenches at Gallipoli. Faced with horrific heat and a lack of water they stared down No Mans Land with deadly prospects. Having come under-prepared and ill-experienced, Gallipoli defied expectation. Comprised of rugby legends and academic brights, the 7th Battalion were some of the best men Ireland had to offer. But at Gallipoli a once brilliant future was reduced to mere seconds on a worthless battle-ground. Pals immerses the audience in a devastating tale of brotherhood and war, where the untold stories of the soldiers breaks through the darkness of battle and reveals the humanity of those whom it left behind. A concoction of both mental and physical exhaustion is compounded with sheer excitement as the actors invite the audience into their dorms and into their deepest fears. As a rugby ball is passed gaily across the room an innocent, boyish nature is revealed, intermittently disrupted by alarming re-enactments of life at Gallipoli. The sense of impending adventure and doom is palpable and even the final optimistic trumpets which echo around Collins Barracks are tinged with incredible sadness. Undoubtedly, this intimate encounter with site-specific theatre is made exceptional through Pals‘s superb acting and artistry. The audience is allowed an incredible insight into Irish history as they are thrown into a vortex of camaraderie, hysteria and fear.
One hundred years on, ANU manages to reawaken the First World War, to breathe life into Collins Barracks, and to evoke the forgotten stories of the 7th Battalion to heart-breaking effect. Pals renders the history books obsolete as it highlights the personal experience of the war and the humanity behind the devastation. What were once Ireland’s future leaders became Ireland’s often forgotten past: a brotherhood of men, destroyed by the trenches and the reality of being left behind. ANU’s production gives startling insight into the vivid reality of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in a superb representation of what these men truly were: pals.
Pals – The Irish at Gallipoli runs at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks until April 30. Tickets cost €5 and are available from www.pals-theirishatgallipoli.com.
