What was under your bed when you were a child? A discarded teddy, comics, old records, tapes, CD's, a doll with a broken arm, a much-loved book, lurking monsters, witches, fairies, Peter Pan? The list, real or imagined, is endless -and that is what the www.undermybed.ie team, Karen Lee and Amy Dawson, set out to discover when they devised this innovative and creative fundraiser for Barnardos.
The idea evolved while the two friends were sharing a bottle of wine. By the time the bottle was empty they had filled their notebook with the names of people they would approach and ask to write about that childhood space under their beds. I was delighted when asked to participate and spent a nostalgic few days digging out and discarding old memories until I came to my most dominant one - those childhood nights when the wind sang fiercely around my house and the rain against the window reminded me of witchy fingernails tapping the glass. The crackling sounds of the shipping forecast would rise through the floorboards under my bed and I'd huddle deeper beneath the blankets, knowing that my mother, in the room below, was turning the dial on the wireless in an effort to find out if the ship my father sailed on was safe - or in the throes of the storm.
Karen and Amy received a terrific response to their request and they have now assembled a patchwork of childhood stories from some of Ireland's most recognisable names and faces. For further information check www.undermybed.ie. The fundraiser will be held from 16-18 January 2014 nightly at 7:30 pm in Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin - and promises to be a really entertaining night. Tickets: www.smockalley.com and www.entertainment.ie are priced at €30 and all proceeds (every last cent!) will go directly to Barnardos.
