Irish music, leprechauns, fairies and other mythical figures transformed the gym of the BOS/FOS Scheyern into Ireland’s mysterious world.

This year again the “Wilde Shamrock Theatre” performed on a small stage in the gym of BOS/FOS Scheyern and fascinated the pupils with traditional Irish music and stories. This year’s theme was Ireland’s mythology, Gaelic language and Gaelic hurling.

The actors introduced their company with a traditional Irish folk song which was played live on stage by the actors. They performed the song with a typical Irish flute and drums. Eoghan also explained the audience how to play such a drum and so he caught the attention of the pupils. During the play the actors often asked pupils questions or even snatched someone’s jacket or cap when they portrayed a grabby leprechaun. This made the performance exciting and amusing, and made the audience feeling like being part of it.

Especially the performance of the leprechaun at the beginning was very funny and proved the personal idea of a leprechaun excellently. With lots of different costumes and fast scene changings the actors were able to introduce some more Irish fairies in a very humorous way. It was also revealed how seriously the Irish treat the fairy underworld and how Ireland’s early Christians used Irish mythology to explain God’s work.

After introducing a variety of fairies, the students were taught about the Gaelic language and popular Gaelic sport -hurling. For this act the actors picked a few pupils to be part of the performance on stage. First three students had to write down typical Gaelic names – a presumably easy exercise. The audience soon learnt that the pupils had spelled the names completely wrong and there was a lot of laughter and amazement when we saw the correct spelling of the Irish names.

Afterwards some male students were selected to help the actors to portray the typical Gaelic sport which is widely unknown outside Ireland. The student’s job was to build a goal with their bodies while one of the actors simulated to play a ball (it definitely was no softball), through the whole gym above the heads of the audience, into the goal. Again the gym was roaring!

Summing up it can be said that the whole presentation of Ireland’s mysterious world and the introduction of Gaelic language and hurling gave the audience a feeling for the Irish culture and woke the desire to travel to Ireland for exploring this mysterious world.

We’re already looking forward to another performance of the “Wilde Shamrock Theatre” next year, carrying on a very long tradition.