Set on a real bumper-car track, DODGEMS immersed its audience in the textures of an exotic and multicultural fairground. They sensed the speed, the energy and the mayhem in a displaced and alluring world in which a bawdy band of new arrivals and indigenous misfits play out the dodging and crashing of life against a haunting soundscape.
Creators David Bolger and Charlie O’Neill
Set Designer Paul O’Mahony
Lighting Designer John Comiskey
Music Ellen Cranitch
Sound Designer Alexis Nealon
Costume Designer Kathy Strachen
Cast Piotr Baumann, Jason E.Bernard, Simone Choplain, Lee Clayden, Amanda Coogan, Unita Gay Galiluyo, Monic Munoz Marín, Emma O’Kane, Diane O’Keeffe, Mark O’Regan, David Toole
Little Girls Shauna Harris, Carla Ong, Elizabeth Ozyuianuina
Musicians David Carmody, Ellen Cranitch, Simone Mendonca
Stage Director Mags Mulvey
Stage Manager Stephanie Ryan
Photography Leon Farrell, Ros Kavanagh, Chris Nash, Patrick Redmond
Past Performances
Premiere
25 September – 12 October 2008 | O’Reilly Theatre | Dublin, Ireland
Reviews
“A clever, entertaining and suspenseful dance drama…full of surprises” Irish Independent
“Over two levels, the set is exquisite. A real bumper track morphs from pastoral scene to pole dancing club to nunnery and is a brilliant testament to CoisCéim’s characteristic and ingenious skills with staging.” Stephen Mulkearn, Metro
“Director/Choreographer David Bolger & Charlie O’Neill hit on a marvellous concept, blending the exotic but unconventional ways of outsider circus folk, whose difference we revel in and even enthusiastically accept, with the experiences of our new outsiders … terrific staging and performances” Seona Mac Réamoinn, Irish Times
“the marrying of several folk dance traditions raised the roof” Seona Mac Réamoinn, Irish Times
“roll up roll up … … beautiful … poignant … humerous … show-stopping … CoisCéim show us why we’ve come” Sophie Gorman, Irish Independent
“… the act of colliding versus the act of avoiding – and it underpins much of what O’Neill and choreographer/director David Bolger set out in Dodgems…. surges into a finale of show-piece dancing, a joyous and seemless integration of folk dancing styles” Michael Seaver, Irish Theatre Magazine
“… exciting and original piece of visual, physical, musical theatre…” Colin Murphy, Tribune Arts
Gallery
