UCD and UCDSU came together during a difficult point in their relationship to create a pantomime. The relationship is in rocky waters at the moment as the SU believes that Deeks has his eye on international students, “Does Deeksy not want to exploit us anymore?”. Just like trying to hold a relationship together with children, will a panto solve their communication problems? Will Deeks start to keep to his promises?
The Pantomime titled ‘The No Disadvantage Saga’ chronicles the story of a recent tiff between Belfield’s venerable institutions, in which the university royally screwed students over pandemic education supports.
The production opens in classic panto fashion with Deeks announcing the “No Disadvantage Policy” then denying he ever used those words, sadly Anderson never noticed that Deeks made the policy “advisory” not mandatory despite the crowd yelling “He’s behind you” the whole time!
The highlight of the panto was the scene where Anderson and Deeks argued in style at a Government Authority meeting:
Anderson: “You lied to us about almost every part of the policy and have completely ruined any semblance of trust between management and the Union.”
Deeks: “Oh no we didn’t!”
Anderson: “Oh yes you did!”
Deeks: “Oh no we didn’t!”
Anderson: “Oh yes you did!”
Deeks: “Oh no we didn’t!”
Anderson: “Oh yes you did!”
Deeks: “Oh no we didn’t!”
Written as a joint effort between both parties, the pantomime unsurprisingly featured Ol’ Andy Deeks as the evil character, although one of the classic tropes of ‘audience interaction’ was completely removed as the panto was performed online without an audience. Deeks charged the same fee for a non-live video of the panto as would usually be expected for an in-person show…
The final scene of the panto showed the two male leads each singing a song dear to their heart, Anderson performed an emotional rendition of Pink Floyd’s ’Another Brick In The Wall’. The lyric of “we don’t need no education, we don’t need no student accommodation at affordable prices” blended beautifully into Deeks loving cover of “For the Love of Money” featuring alluring lyrics such as: “Money money money money, money [Repeat: x 6]”. Deeks finished his performance by pledging allegiance to a Pooh Bear figurine in the front row, although this did not feature in the version released to the Chinese market for unconfirmed reasons.
Given the price of €3,254 per ticket, with a taxable €250 discount, I would recommend that all potential viewers give this one a miss!
Dugh Hooley – Snooze Editor
