Irish Theatre Online
A virtual ‘open house’ performance of letters, poems, and songs
Dear Ireland Continues
through Feb 10, 2021
The Abbey is Ireland’s national theatre.
The Abbey asked their audience to write a letter. To start it, ‘Dear Ireland’, and talk to the nation about what it should be discussing. They received letters from all corners of the country and overseas, letters in Irish, English, and Irish Sign Language.
Now, twenty of these letters are read from the Abbey stage by some of Ireland’s leading actors, interspersed with epic music performances by Damien Dempsey and spoken word performances from Lord Mayor Hazel Chu, Mrs. Sabina Higgins, Minister Catherine Martin TD, and Fintan O’Toole.
In these profoundly unsettling times for Irish society and the entire world, Dear Ireland continues to give a voice to the nation. Join the Abbey for an evening of thought and song that tries to make sense of the world right now.
A series of three minute postcards from underrepresented voices in Irish society
Dear Ireland III
Dec 17, 2020 – May 14, 2021
in association with Sunday’s Child Theatre
Mustard
by Eva O’Connor
Jan 11 – 27, 2021
Fishamble, the “new play company,” typically supports over 50% of all new plays on the island of Ireland every year.
When E meets the man of her dreams, a professional cyclist, love hits her in the pubic bone like a train. But when it ends she plummets into a black hole of heartbreak at the speed of a doped up team on the Tour de France. A one-woman show about heartbreak, madness and how condiments are the ultimate coping mechanism, by award-winning playwright & performer Eva O’Connor.
Corrib Theatre plans to present Maz and Bricks, another play by Eva O’Connor, in the next season.
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.
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.
Druid was founded in Galway in 1975 by Garry Hynes, Marie Mullen, and Mick Lally and was the first professional Irish theatre company outside of Dublin.
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.
A selection of tiny plays submitted from the #TinyPlayChallenge
Tiny Play Challenge
Fishamble, the “new play company,” typically supports over 50% of all new plays on the island of Ireland every year.
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!
