Tag: Theatre

My Poet Dark and Slender

This weekend I’m heading west for the Galway Theatre Festival and in particular to catch Roisin Stack’s new work ‘My Poet Dark and Slender’. If you’re in the Galway area, make sure to check it out but be warned tickets are selling fast. Get yours here

Running at Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre,  My Poet Dark and Slender is based on a story by Padraic O’Conaire, and staged by Mmm Theatre. Set in 1915, it centres on a bored housewife called Eileen who embarks on a brazen affair with a handsome poet. The production features mask, stylised movement, and an original score by Aindrias de Staic.

Roisin chatted with Charlie McBride of the Galway Advertiser earlier this week about the play.

“The story is a memory told from Eileen’s perspective,” explains director Róisín Stack, “and because memories are often patchy and unreliable, we’re taking artistic liberties in how we present her story. We have lights that cast shadows, music that warps out of time, characters played by everyone in the cast, and a lot of stylised movement. It’s not a straight-forward piece of theatre by any means.

“I came across the story in Scoithscealta and was first drawn to it because of its title,” Stack continues. “Then when I read it I was really surprised to find it was quite a passionate story. It has a lot of imagery about the devil, fire, passion, and it is beautifully written with a great twist in it as well. It’s told from the woman’s perspective which is unusual for the time. We’ve used O’Conaire’s story as a springboard, we did a lot of devising and brought in other material; a Dorothy Parker reading, contemporary songs, a re-mixed John McCormack ballad, a speech by Daniel O’Connell, writing from Joan Didion, so we’ve looked beyond the original story in putting together the show.”

The cast for My Poet Dark and Slender includes Daniel Guinnane, Jo Lopez, Lucia Smyth, Muirenn Ní Raghallaigh, and Réidín Ní Thuama, while Conor Kennedy-Burke is movement director. It is at the Mick Lally Theatre from tomorrow up to and including Monday May 2 at 8.30pm.

My-Poet-Dark-and-Slender-Mmm-Theatre

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Chance to see new theatre in London this Friday…

People of London, you’ve a golden opportunity to see some exciting theatre this weekend. On Friday at 4pm in the Gielgud Theatre, RADA you can catch a rehearsed read-through of a new work by Maureen O’Connell entitled ‘Good Girl’
maureen

Alexandra comes runner up in a Page 3 Contest and will only get the winning money of £3000 if she goes ahead with the glamour shoot. Will she do it?

Good Girl is about Alexandra. A young woman who decides to do a topless glamour shoot after her ex-boyfriend posts a photo of her online and she inadvertently becomes runner up in a Page 3 Contest. She’s applied to go to college but she decides this may just be a much more lucrative option for her and may give her the money she’s been so desperately wanting to go back home to Australia. She’s wise to the world. But does everyone agree with her? Can she maintain relationships with her father & those that judge this decision in a darker light?

Tickets are available here

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it over but if I lived in London there is no way I’d miss this.

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Ceoldrama is repeated on TG4 today

Good news everybody, An Ceoldráma, the series I cut last year for director Colm Bairéad is being repeated on TG4 in the run up to christmas. The series runs for 4 weeks with the first episode airing this tea time at 5:55 (Dec 3rd). If you missed it the first time out, nows your chance to see it. Its a really lovely series and it is in my opinion among the best things I’ve had the pleasure of working on.
The series was nominated for 3 IFTA’s last year, Best Director, Best Youth and The Irish Language Award.

Here’s a wee trailer for the series to give you an idea what its like

ceoldrama 02

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JOLT Panel Discussion in Galway next Monday

The wonderful Roisin Stack is part of the JOLT team organising an exciting event in Galway next week for all lovers of the arts. Here’s what they had to say about it or visit the event page on facebook

We are delighted and excited to announce that on Monday 10th December a panel discussion on the subject of Adaptation for the Stage will be presented on the main stage of Galway’s Town Hall Theatre.

Chaired by Patrick Lonergan (NUI Galway), the panel will consist of Máiréad Ní Chroinín (Moonfish Theatre), Niall Henry (Blue Raincoat Theatre), Simon Doyle (Pan Pan Theatre) and Michael West (The Corn Exchange Theatre Company).

The panel will discuss adaptation in its broadest sense – ideologies and methods, successes and failures – as well as their own experiences with this approach. We will also open the floor to questions if time permits.

With recent stagings of The Picture of Dorian Grey at The Abbey, Moonfish’s successful run of Pinocchio . . . , Darwin: A Life in Poems adapted by Mephisto for this year’s Cúirt Festival, Dubliners by Corn Exchange and an upcoming production of The Dead at The Abbey, adaptation is clearly as relevant to theatre now as ever. JOLT would like the public to come and share their thoughts on adaptation as a form of theatre at the panel discussion and everyone is welcome!

We encourage anyone to come along, whether interested in adaptation, writing, theatre, or maybe just curious about the event itself.

The discussion is free of charge and presented by JOLT in association with NUI Galway, Town Hall Theatre, Galway and Acadamh (OÉ Gaillimh).

Doors are at 7:30pm sharp and running time is approximately 90 minutes.

We look forward to seeing you all for a lively discussion! Spread the good word.

jolt

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The Honey Spike Opens Tonight…

For the last number of weeks my friend Róisín Stack has been toiling away as Creative Producer on Mephisto Theatre Company’s production of Bryan McMahon’s “The Honey Spike”. The play opens tonight on the Town Hall Main Stage in Galway where it runs until Saturday. Advance word is that its something special, you can buy tickets here but hurry up as they are fast selling out.

THE HONEY SPIKE

“Here is a tale of the Irish roads, of a tinker and his wife. It’s a tale of trouble and wildness and a child that’s born to life…”

Breda Claffey has set her heart on returning to Kerry. For in Kerry is the Honey Spike, the ‘lucky’ hospital in which her child must be born.

No other spike will do. But she and her husband Martin are far from home, at the northernmost tip of Ireland – and Kerry is a long, wearisome distance by cart.

It’s a journey of endurance lightened by laughter and mischief. The travellers tangle with soldiers at the border, priests in the Midlands and feuding clans in Kerry. Breda rushes towards the future but the past is waiting for her at Puck Fair in the shape of Winifred McQueen, the gypsy girl who wanted Martin for herself. The Honey Spike evokes an Ireland of passion, wildness and beauty. Its people live as they have always lived; putting their faith in God and in magic, in religion and superstition, but their greatest belief of all is in life itself.

Playwright Bryan McMahon comes from the great North Kerry tradition of Irish writers that includes his illustrious contemporary, John B. Keane. The Honey Spike, which was first produced by the Abbey Theatre in 1961, is widely regarded as his best play.

“…There’s mating in it, birth and death and drink to flood a dyke So here’s how they raced the bloody road that led to the Honey Spike”

Cast: Emmet Byrne, Órlagh De Bhaldraithe, Jerry Fitzgerald, Maeve Gormley, Helen Gregg, Daniel Guinnane, Martin Maguire, Zita Monahan, Joseph Moylan, Séamus O’Donnell, Eanna O’Dowd, Emma O’Grady and Brid Treasa Wyndham.

Directed by Caroline Lynch

Set design by Brendan Savage

Lighting design by Mike O’Halloran

Creative Producer & Assistant Director: Róisín Stack

Stage Manager: Craig Flaherty

Image by Bradley McNeill

Graphic Design by Patrick Cuasck

VENUE Town Hall Theatre
DATE Tue 9th to Sat 13th Aug
TICKETS: €18 / €14
Tuesday All Seats €12
Family Ticket (4 People) €55

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