"RADE's innovative programme of combatting substance abuse through art introduces addicts to their own genius, their own best selves, it focuses on the buzz that living a positive life can bring,a buzz that is genuine and life enhancing"
President Mary McAleese
The staging of The Last Ten Years at the Dublin Fringe Festival was the highlight of 2012.
The production ran over four nights in St. Patrick’s Cathedral,with full houses each night. The production received rave reviews, with the Irish Times Theatre Festival Review giving the production **** stars!
See the full production:
Cutting D8 was the theme for 2012’s art exhibition, with the group focusing on wood sculpturing. Check out this short documentary to see how we put it all together.
Following the President’s recent appointment he visited our project. We performed Get Stoned
Images and writing from 2012
Niamh pictured reading from Rough Cuts
Writer Dominique Cleary worked with RADErs to produced this insightful collection of short stories and tales. The group read ‘extracts of great personal essays, fiction and poetry: the work of Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, G.K. Chesterton, Jorge Luis Borges, Scott Russell Sanders, Raymond Carver, Sylvia Platt, Ted Hughes, Wendell Berry and W.B. Yeats, to name a few’.
On speaking about her experiences teaching the class, Dominique says, ‘RADErs don’t shy away from telling things as they are. Often simplicity brought the deepest truths, and there was realism, resilience and insight that comes from a life of self-challenge.”
Read stories from Rough Cuts
Our first year wood carving
The group began hand carving in December 2011. Their beautiful mastery, entitled Cutting D8, was displayed for all to see in The Atrium, Dublin City Council Civic Offices, in September, moving then to Smock Alley Theatre and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Eoghan O’Neill, sculpture artist, trained the group in wood-carving. The inspiration for these pieces was the local area, Dublin 8.
Cllr Jim O’Callaghan officially opened the exhibition on Monday 17th September in Dublin City Council Civic Offices.
Choral tunes rang out during rehearsals in RADE
Musician and composer Séan Millar collaborated with RADE on a songcycle for theatre, entitled The Last Ten Years, which combines choral music and ritual performance to consider various aspects of our attitudes towards pain relief, medication and the legal and illegal drug trade. The atmospheric St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the setting for the performance which sonically creates something magical crossing the line between theatre and actual living experience.
This production was also performed in Liberty Hall Theatre with Minister Róisín Shorthall TD in attendance.
The first staging of The Last Ten Years in May was a great success. The feedback was very positive and supportive. This prompted us to enter the Dublin Fringe Festival.
