Writer: Ann Matthews. Performer: Amy O’Dwyer. Archive documentary footage: Leslie Crowe. Run time: 11.28 mins.
“I was five years old when my heart was broken for the first time.”
The Moving Bridge has taken a slightly different approach to the monologue format. Archive footage of inner city Dublin, primarily in the 1940s and 1950s, dominate the recording. It is interspersed with Annie, our narrator, sitting at a table, in the same black, white and grey colour scheme as the footage. In a voice over she is telling the story of how her father would go away for work throughout her early life and she would see him off and await his return.
Emigration is a big issue in Ireland, and for someone from the outside it is striking how many Irish people move abroad, travel, how national newspapers include features about how great it is to emigrate to Canada and so on. Over time I have seen quite a few plays that feature the theme of emigration but surprisingly this might be the first one I have seen from the point of view of a child who stays behind and waits. This in itself makes The Moving Bridge a worthwhile watch. The boats taking the men away to find work were “crammed end to end with people all leaning out as if they were trying to get back”. Although this is a very personal experience of emigration it tells a much wider story. Of the boat loads of men who travelled over to England and Scotland for labouring jobs, piecemeal work, anything that would put food on the table. Of families kept together by money sent home, letters and the anticipation of return.
The archive footage heavily features images of Spencer Dock Bridge and the cluster of north inner city streets close by that would map Annie’s fathers path into and out of her life. The city is very present here and acts as another presence in the play. When the camera moves to Annie, she is sat at a table with the camera facing her and a mug in hand. She finds it difficult to look straight ahead. Opposite her is another mug but instead of a person is the camera. This is a very personal story which may account for her difficulty in looking directly at the camera, but she could also be talking to her father as she traces the story of their life together, from beginning to end.
The Moving Bridge is a love story between a daughter and her father mapped out by the cluster of city streets that held them together.
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