2012-2013

MOLLY SWEENEY

APRIL 2013

Molly Sweeney tells the story of its title character, Molly, a woman blind since infancy, who undergoes an operation to try to restore her sight. Like Friel’s Faith Healer, the play tells Molly’s story through monologues by three actors, in this case Molly, her husband Frank, and her surgeon, Mr Rice. Through their words we, the audience, witness their jealousy, their fear and their desperation for love.

CAST

Molly: Mari Carpenter

Mr Rice: James Gibney

Frank: Richard Norman-Wright

CREW

Director: Mary Cauldwell

Producer: Nara Fritch

Backstage: Aga Daly & Marianne Gibney

Lighting: Ronald Jones

The Gingerbread Lady

NEIL SIMON / FEBRUARY 2013

The Gingerbread Lady is a comedy drama – with serious undertones. It centres on Evy, a cabaret singer whose career, marriage and health have all been destroyed by alcohol. Having just completed a ten-week stint in a rehab facility, she returns home to the welcome of friends with their own problems – Jimmy, a gay actor in danger of losing a part in a play and Toby, an overly vain woman who fears the loss of her looks. Then Polly, her devoted but anxious teenage daughter arrives on the scene, shortly followed by Lou, Evy’s worthless ex-lover. Crackling with the kind of hilarious oneliners we expect from Neil Simon, the play focuses on whether Evy will stay on the wagon or career towards a tragic end...

CAST

Evy: Louise Keating

Polly: Éabha Geraghty

Toby: Deirdre Langton

Jimmy: Dave McGloughlin

Lou: Gerard Grimes

Manuel: Ross O'Shea

Doctor: Ray McCarthy / Michael McKenna

CREW

Director: Kevin O' Malley

Stage Manager: Aga Daly

THE DESERT LULLABY

JENNIFER JOHNSTON / OCTOBER 2012

Moving between the Ireland of the ‘Emergency’ and the present day, ‘the desert lullaby’ is the story of two elderly women: the ‘harmlessly insane’ Flora, and Nellie, her housekeeper, scold and protector.

Their intertwining stories provide an evocative exploration of familial love, oppression, loyalty and memory. Rooted firmly in the imaginative and political tensions at the heart of Ireland past and present, their voices, stories and perspectives – young and old – are an articulation of endurance in the face of greater impersonal forces of destruction: loss, death, decay and betrayal.

By turns comic and harrowing, ‘the desert lullaby’ confirms Jennifer Johnston as one of Ireland’s most significant dramatists.

CAST

Flora: Rita McCarthy

Nellie: Suzanne Healy

Young Flora: Ashlea Cox

Young Nellie: Jane Mehigan

Eddie:Adam Burke

CREW

Director: Ronald Jones