June 2009 – The Abbey Theatre presents Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s celebrated comedy of manners THE RIVALS as this year’s summer production. One of theatre’s most enduring comedies, the national theatre’s production is directed by Patrick Mason and opens for an eight week run on Wednesday 28 July 2009.
A cherished dream is finally becoming a reality with the imminent re-opening of Druid’s newly refurbished home on Druid Lane in Galway. The theatre will be unveiled with a production of The Gigli Concert by Tom Murphy as part of Galway Arts Festival (July 14-25). The production will then transfer to the Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork (July 28 – August 1) before returning to Galway to the Town Hall Theatre (August 4th – 8th). Widely regarded as Tom Murphy’s masterpiece, The Gigli Concert will embark on an extensive tour of Ireland in November and December.
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Theatre touring- or the distinct lack of- has become a real issue in the performance sector and is being treated as such. Mary Cloake articulates; ‘The concept of the regions is one which has assumed totemic importance in artistic and cultural policy in Ireland. Policies for the development of drama and policies for regional development have become inextricably entwined, particularly over the last twenty years’. The potential for theatre companies to tour is obviously fading as a result of economic crisis but, disregarding global financial anarchy, touring in Ireland has always been a problematic area for many reasons- the current economic downturn, and more specifically the recent Arts Council Funding Decision, have only intensified the already existing reality.
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Woman and Scarecrow, one of Irish playwright Marina Carr’s most recent plays, despite not being set anywhere in particular, addresses issues that are familiar to the Irish stage. While she takes a step away from the midlands of Ireland of previous plays like By the Bog of Cats and Portia Coughlan, she revisits themes and issues from these plays and develops them in a new way. Woman and Scarecrow, like numerous of Carr’s other plays, deals with issues and ideas surrounding death and the realm of the dead, the play revolving around the central character of ‘Woman’ who lingers precariously between the realms of the living and the dead, assessing and commenting upon her life from her sick bed. It plays with the boundaries of reality and fantasy or myth, the mythic realm of the dead and the undead, of ghosts and spirits.
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The Abbey Theatre is delighted to present the world premiere of a new play by one of Ireland’s finest playwrights, Tom Murphy. Opening on Tuesday 3 June THE LAST DAYS OF A RELUCTANT TYRANT is the seventeenth work that Murphy has premiered at Ireland’s national theatre.
1. Are you a feminist?
I am feminist, neo-feminist, post-feminist and alter-feminist.
2. Do you consider your work to be a feminist project?
My work cannot be resumed to that but, of course, it explores that question. When you work with the body, and with your own body, you combine the intimate and the social; feminist struggles have made it abundantly clear that the body is political, and this awareness has become a major historical issue.
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Confession time: I only went to see October because my Mum (who has an allergic reaction to online booking-charges) sent me down to the box office to buy tickets and in a reward for ‘beating the system’, she said she’d bring me along too. I had never been to the Olympia to see a play, it was definitely more of a live-music sort of venue for me, so I was really intrigued to see what it could offer as a theatre space. The theatre night in question was really bizarre for me. I was used to taking my comfortable seat in the Abbey or the Gate while listening to tinkling piano and discussing the set and ambience knowingly with a fellow drama student. Here I was squashed into (let’s be honest) a terribly painful seat in the Olympia while ushers were selling ice-cream and advertisements were being projected onto the fire safety curtain onstage.
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Dublin is hosting a world premiere! And it’s not the latest offering from Marina Carr (hooray!) but something a little more Hollywood… A stage production of The Shawshank Redemption is opening at The Gaiety 19th May. In other exciting, showbiz news I got to have a chat with the director, Peter Sheridan.
ABBEY THEATRE TO BRING BACK SELL-OUT SHOW ‘AGES OF THE MOON’ BY SAM SHEPARD
STARS STEPHEN REA AND SEÁN MCGINLEY TO REPRISE ORIGINAL ROLES
13 – 18 November 2009
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