Irish Theatre Online
A direct response to the report on Mother and Baby Homes
Home: Part One
Mar 17 – Jul 17, 2021
In January 2021 the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes published its report investigating the discrimination experienced by vulnerable women and children in Mother and Baby Institutions in Ireland. It asserted that, over 76 years from 1922 to 1998, some 56,000 mothers and 57,000 children were kept in the 14 Mother and Baby Institutions and four County Homes it examined.
Online rehearsed readings of new plays selected from almost 300 submissions.
Druid Debuts 2021
Livestream Jun 10, Jun 17, and Jul 1
7:30pm (Irish time)
And Other Hellish Things by Shane Burke (Jun 10)
When Phil’s house in Galway is flooded, he is forced to move to suburban Dublin to stay with his estranged brother and sister-in-law. His intrusion upon an already strained relationship, amidst a crumbling family-run coffee shop, will have disastrous implications for them all.
Flicker by Róisín Coyle (Jun 17)
Two documentary filmmakers interview the survivors of events that occurred in Dublin in 1994 which resulted in the deaths of several people and accusations of child witchcraft. Each survivor has their own story to tell.
Håber Undone by Catherine Cronin (Jul 1)
Luna was once a well-respected scientist. Now, she has retreated to a research station in a remote part of Northern Greenland where she is pouring the last of her money, health and hope into securing a breakthrough in her climate research. With the arrival of a new guest at the station, and with time and money running out, Luna’s desperation, paranoia and isolation threaten to derail her grasp of reality and her life.
“Hopeless, helpless, in-the-way person”
Silent
by Pat Kinevane
Jun 18 – 20, 2021
SILENT is the touching and challenging story of homeless McGoldrig, who once had splendid things. But he has lost it all – including his mind. He now dives into the wonderful wounds of his past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino. Dare to laugh at despair and gasp at redemption in this brave, bleak, beautiful production for which Fishamble and Pat Kinevane won an Olivier Award in 2016.
This summer, Fishamble is proud to celebrate 10 years of producing Silent by Pat Kinevane, directed by Jim Culleton, by inviting audiences around the world to take a fresh look at this heart wrenching performance in a specially filmed version.
A new play by Una McKevitt
One Good Turn
Livestream Jun 25 – 26, 2021
7:30pm (Irish time)
On Demand Jun 27 – Jul 10, 2021
Brenda wants Frank to do his exercises, Aoife wants to go to a wedding of all things, Fiona doesn’t know what she wants and Frank is looking for the gun. A comic new play by Una McKevitt, One Good Turn brings us a family on the brink who are keeping the show on the road any which way they can.
Directed by Emma Jordan, Best Director winner at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2018, One Good Turn is a wry and life-affirming exploration into the ups and downs of family bonds.
A world premiere of a new play from Rosaleen McDonagh
Walls and Windows
Livestream Aug 27 – 28, 2021
7:30pm (Irish time)
On Demand Aug 29 – Sep 11, 2021
“Lads, when it comes to your time for pickin’ women, you’re not going to have my kind of luck. The best one is taken.”
All Julia and John want is to live their lives with their two sons, on their own terms. But despite their hopes, the outside world and its racism puts paid to their plans. A world premiere of a new play from Rosaleen McDonagh (playwright of Pretty Proud Boy, commissioned by Corrib Theatre), this tender, complex and beautiful love story examines how external circumstances pull us apart, when all we really want is to be together.
Before
Livesream July 4, 2021 8pm (Irish time)
From the team that brought you Forgotten, Underneath and the Olivier Award-winning Silent, Before is a new play with much music, set in Clery’s of Dublin, on the very day this iconic department store shuts – for good. Pontius is inside, trying to choose a gift for his estranged daughter, whom he hasn’t seen for almost 20 years. He will meet her in an hour. This father’s journey is both beautiful and strange, from the isolation of his Midlands home, to the madness of O’Connell Street. Some folk are impossible to buy for…
Fishamble is very proud to have commissioned, developed, and produced four solo plays written and performed by Pat Kinevane, which continue to tour extensively.
Irish premiere of a new play by Enda Walsh
Medicine
Livestream Sept 15 – 18, 2021
8pm (Irish time)
Medicine is a devastatingly funny and moving meditation on how, for decades, we have treated those we call mentally ill. It’s a dark and frequently absurdist work that shatters the boundary between cast and audience: actors are interrupted by crew members, technical mechanics happen on stage, and performance becomes a kind of therapy. The audience’s laughter becomes complicit in the creation of a surreal universe that shifts abruptly into moments of emotional poignancy.
In association with Trafalgar Theatre Productions
On Blueberry Hill
by Sebastian Barry
In Barry’s beautiful style, On Blueberry Hill features best of friends and worst of enemies Christy (Niall Buggy) and PJ (David Ganly), who are destined to share their lives for twenty years. As the two men reflect on the hope and torment of life outside — they slowly uncover the events that have led them to their world with explosive, bittersweet consequences.
Sebastian Barry wrote Tales of Ballycumber, which Corrib Theatre had a reading of in 2014.
A selection of tiny plays submitted from the #TinyPlayChallenge
Tiny Play Challenge
Fishamble wanted people to keep their creativity flowing by challenging people in Ireland and around the world, to write 600 word Tiny Plays. They received over 470 submissions in total for the #TinyPlayChallenge, and published 34 of them on their website. Each play is only a couple of minutes long. Perform them yourself for a creative lockdown activity!
DruidSynge
Plays Written by JM Synge
Directed by Garry Hynes
In 2005, Druid presented the first ever staging of all John Millington Synge’s entire theatrical canon. Five of these plays are now available for online viewing.
In Synge’s Deirdre of the Sorrows, Deirdre is loving and heroic and sets fate on when she induces the great young warrior Naisi to escape with her to Scotland, so avoiding marriage to the aged King Conchubar.
Riders of the Sea is set on the Aran Island, Inishmaan. The plot is based not on the traditional conflict of human wills but on the hopeless struggle of a people against the impersonal but relentless cruelty of the sea.
In The Well of the Saints, Martin and Mary Doul are an old, blind couple of the roads. When a wandering Saint offers them the miracle of their sight restored, they gladly accept. But instead of finding joy and happiness, they discover a seeing world that is a lot more complicated than they could ever have imagined.
The Shadow of the Glen‘s Nora schemes a fresh union with a neighbor shepherd even while her husband’s body is not yet cold.
Synge’s great comic masterpiece, The Playboy of the Western World, tells the story of Christy Mahon, who stumbles into a public house in County Mayo claiming he has killed his father and so capturing the romantic attention of the daughter of the house, Pegeen Mike.
