Theatre

Sara Keating: DYT still giving kids a voice in theatre after 45 years

Dublin Youth Theatre has had an enormous influence on the Irish theatre landscape since being founded in 1977, and it continues to serve as a vital stepping stone for Dublin teens with an interest in the dramatic arts

Ellen Donohoe as Bel-Imperia, with Luca Reuland as Castile and Sophie Mangan as the King of Spain in DYT’s production of The Spanish Tragedy. Picture: Aoife Herrity

Last week, on the stage of Dublin’s Project Arts Centre, an ensemble of 15 young actors stood in front of a live audience and performed the challenging Elizabethan drama The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd.

Kyd was writing in the 1580s, just before William Shakespeare, and his work had an undisputed influence on the more famous author. It included a play (no longer extant) that is thought to have been the original Hamlet. Hamlet also ...