PARK LIFE

A RECENT Eastern Health Board report highlighted the controversial issue of male prostitution in the Dublin area. Now, Green ? a new stage production being presented as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival ? examines the human face of this hitherto ignored, taboo subject.
Written by Anthony Goulding, a young Dubliner from Stoneybatter, Green tells the story of seven young men in their early twenties who hang around the Phoenix Park near the Wellington Monument ? an area notorious as a pick-up spot for rent boys.
?They?re ordinary chaps and they do all the things that lads of that age do,? explains the play?s director, Vanessa Fielding. ?They smoke and they drink and get up to all kinds of mischief. But there?s a darker, more violent side to their behaviour and they regularly embark on queer-bashing sessions.?
The play centres around one of the boys ? the most enthusiastic ?queer basher? among them and the only one with a girlfriend. As the story unfolds, it transpires that he is living an extraordinary double life. Unbeknownst to the others, he is in fact involved in prostitution and is a rent boy himself. This startling discovery occurs after an incident one night where he loses control and beats up a customer ? a civil servant who is married with a child. Though he doesn?t expect the punter to report the assault, the gardai have been secretly watching him and he?s arrested and put on remand. The play examines the effect this traumatic revelation has on the solidarity of the group.
With over forty productions to her credit, in both the UK and Ireland (including the acclaimed Kiss Of The Spiderwoman recently staged at Andrew?s Lane) Vanessa Fielding originally trained at the Young Vic in London.
?The director I trained under was particularly keen on theatre in-the-round,? she says. ?It?s much more like TV and film, where the action is close to you with much more immediacy. For Green, we?re converting the Dublin Brewing Company in Smithfield into a theatre. We?ve built a road around the middle of it and the audience moves with the action, which takes place in different parts of the theatre.?
The author of the play, Anthony Goulding, is currently studying to be an actor at Manchester Metropolitan university. Green, which is his first play, found its way to Fielding via the Inner City Partnership Cultural Affairs Department. ?I think it?s an absolutely wonderful play,? she says, ?written, from the point of view of the participants in the drama.?
The ensemble cast includes a team of young professional actors, some with TV and film credits including Bryan Glanney (Finbar?s Class), Darren Healy (Hooligans) and Gavin Kelty (The General). But according to Fielding, it?s the first serious opportunity on stage for most of them: ?We?re really lucky to have such a strong cast as each part is substantial and requires a personal commitment in order to do justice to this challenging story.?
As part of her preparation for the production of the play, Fielding went along to the Phoenix Park one evening and spoke to some of the rent boys who work there. She found the experience invaluable to her understanding of the phenomenon.
?It?s a strange and fascinating lifestyle,? she explains. ?Some of them even have day jobs but it becomes an almost addictive habit for them. They get a strange kind of a thrill; as soon as they cross the gates into the park they?re entering into a twilight world where their lives are at risk. And they can earn quite decent money too. But some of the customers take advantage of them and they?ll offer as low as #5 per shot if they think the boy is short of money for a drink or for some drugs.?
She was also shocked to find out how young some of the rent boys were.
?Most of them are in their teens but I believe there was a boy as young as nine in the park at one point. The older boys were so shocked that they brought him home.?
Fielding believes this is the first time the subject has been treated in this way and is hopeful that it will increase understanding of the problem. ?It?s a play of substance but it?s entertaining and it?s funny. It has something to say about our society, something that is part of our lives. The audience reaction has yet to be gauged but the local community in Dublin 7 are delighted that it?s being done and the gay community have also given it their support.? n
? Green, which has a recommended minimum age of 14 will run at the Dublin Brewing Company, Smithfield, Dublin 7, from September 30th until October 11th 1997 (8.00pm). Tickets are priced at #5 (#2.50 for unwaged & residents of Dublin 7.) Further information from Smithfield Civic Centre PH: 8725045