Review: TAF’s ‘What Lies in the Woods’

Students were treated to a night of fantasy and intrigue at the culminating event of Fourth Week

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Societies Fourth Week culminated in a spectacle of fire and fairytales last night with Trinity Arts Festival’s (TAF) much anticipated ‘What Lies in the Woods’. Tickets sold out in five minutes on Thursday, making it the most popular event of the week.

The evening began with Juggling and Circus Soc performing a variety of fire tricks with hoops and chains — including one aptly called the ‘Infinite Suicide Whip’ — in front of the Campanile, with confused members of the public pausing as they crossed the square on their way home from work.

As the crowds grew the doors of the GMB opened to reveal the amount of hard work that had gone into pulling off this event, with every last detail meticulously done.

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Twigs and sheets of paper hung from the ceiling as if by themselves, mesh tents were hung from the lamp shades to create ghostly figures, and each player donned a specific costume to suit their character. Although some costumes, such as the wolf (which consisted of a fur coat on a man), were a bit lack lustre.

With an ensemble cast of DU Food & Drink, Fashion Soc, LitSoc, Afro Caribbean Soc, DUPA, VisArts, Juggling and Circus Soc, DUDJ, The Phil, Players, TradSoc and others the GMB was transformed into a mystery tour.  

Guests were treated with a rendition of Little Red Riding Hood by the Brother’s Grimm themselves, who made up for their heavily Anglicised appearance with the occasional meine Kinder and meine Freunde. The mystery in question was to find the pages of the book that had fallen from the balcony in the GMB Chamber and somehow ended up scattered around the building.

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Each floor had a different theme. Upstairs the pool rooms were divided into task themed areas — from BioSoc’s ‘Guess the Ailment’ to VisArt’s mask-making stall. The Macarena could be heard coming from the attic as blindfolded students tentatively made their way around obstacles with nothing but a rope to guide them.

Afro Caribbean Soc were accompanied by a screaming woman to add to the difficulty of manoeuvring pool table after pool table. There was some backlog between the pool rooms however due to the amount of people attending the event and how personal an experience it was, with each individual guest having to be blindfolded and put in a group before entry.

For those who wished to take a break from the madness for a little while the Hist Conversation Room became a libations hall, with DU Food & Drink serving cider on tap as the characters mingled with the guests.

There was even a token Trot on call in the room, appropriately dressed up as a Russian bear, to remind people of the bigger picture and the cultural importance of Das Capital to this day.

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It was closed off by Trad Soc performing as everyone enjoyed the fine cuisine of brie on crackers and Tesco Lager, before moving to the Turks Head.

The highlight of the night was by far the Hall of Mirrors, with their cryptic questions about what guests saw in their future hitting very close to the bone for many students whose Arts degree selection still baffles taxi drivers on the way home.

As so many societies were involved in this event it is difficult to select but one to join, but it would be impossible to join and be active enough in all of them to justify paying. This was but a sample of what societies such as Trinity Arts Festival have to offer, and the only way to decide which to join is to simply come to these events and try it out for yourselves. That is truly the essence of Fourth Week.

Stacy Wrenn

Stacy Wrenn is a staff writer and a Senior Sophister Jewish and Islamic Civilisations student.