By Laura O’Dwyer.

This semester’s DCU Drama’s show season started off strong last week with the members’ production, ‘Snug’, written and directed by Ethan Fleming and Conor Heffernan McGarry. 

The scene is set as the audience walks into the auditorium, with the actors already on stage in the pub setting. 

The audience is brought through a rollercoaster of emotions during the two acts, with the play touching on themes of growing up, emigration and mental health. 

McGarry and Fleming said that watching their show go from script to stage was “surreal”, with Ethan saying that his favourite part was “Seamus Richardson showing up late to rehearsals and being a comedy cheat code”.

Seamus Richardson, who played the bartender Shay, was always quick-witted, having perfect comedic timing throughout the play. Aoife Dwyer, who played Holly, said that it was “incredibly hard not to break character with how hilarious the writing and acting is for Shay the barman”. 

Despite this, she held it together and gave an incredible performance, really portraying the outward confidence of Holly, while also being able to show inner insecurities in her monologues.

Ray Murray, who played Jer, said that watching the show go from rehearsals to the stage with the set “felt proper real”. 

“When we started doing full runs, the magic of it all came very quickly” he added.

The pub set definitely set the scene for the play, but the pub atmosphere was brought to life with the smell of cigarettes from the smoking area and the live music that was played by the cast. 

The audience was touched by Sarah, played by Frances O’Neill, who acted as a reality check to the rest of the group, showing them that they needed to check up on Rob, played by Aaron Prendergast. 

The final talk between the group brings the play to an emotional end as an argument breaks out between Rob and Dennis, played by Seán Tannam. They both gave a moving performance and left the audience in tears.

Luke Burke, who played Andy, commented that his favourite part was watching the rest of the cast doing the last scene for the first time, “even watching from the wings, I got the same feeling, it was very powerful”. 

The play came to an emotional end with a live rendition of ‘The Parting Glass’, a fitting farewell to the play.