At the age of three, "James X" was deemed to be dangerous. After years spent in and out of the Children's Court in Dublin in the 1960s for theft and disruptive behaviour, he was sent to an industrial school at 14, followed by a reform school, a psychiatric hospital and, when he was 16, prison. During his time in these institutions he was sexually, emotionally and physically abused by the adults who ran them. Using the name he was given on all official documents, writer and performer Gerard Mannix Flynn presents his own story, and through it, that of his fellow sufferers.
Unwanted - or considered unmanageable by the education, health and legal authorities - thousands of Irish children were sent to industrial schools, run by religious orders, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Mostly from poor backgrounds, they were abandoned by the state, which turned a blind eye to their abuse. In recent years, the secret history of Ireland's industrial schools has been exposed, but the enormity is still being absorbed and is rarely presented on stage.
Co-produced by Far Cry Productions and the Dublin theatre festival, this is the third version of this work, which is part performance, part documentary and part installation. With an arresting photographic backdrop of the central hall of Dublin's Four Courts, and enhanced by lighting and sound design, Flynn's performance has grown in assurance and depth. This is more than a piece of raw testimony; it has been shaped and distilled into an indictment as much as a confession.
Switching from rhyming couplets to quiet lyrical phrases, Flynn presents his terrified younger self from various perspectives, using quirky humour to distance himself from self-pity. When the bravado falls away, he reads an unadorned account of the experience of rape and brutality he was afraid to confront for most of his adult life. Now, perhaps, his courage will rub off.
· Ends tomorrow. Box office: 00 353 1 677 8899.
