Upcoming Theatre Events
Rhinoceros (Starting in 1 week, 4 days) Theatre
From: February 16, 2012 20:00 To: February 16, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
When a rhinoceros charges through a small provincial French town square one afternoon, Berenger is initially more concerned with alleviating his hangover than confronting stray animals, and finds it hard to understand why everyone around him has suddenly been engulfed by rhino-induced hysteria. Rhincoceros, a breakthrough play for Eugene Ionesco (running for 241 Broadway performances) is sure to satisfy those with a taste for comedy, absurdism, stampedes and overt political commentary alike. Sligo-based ensemble Blue Raincoat has enjoyed massive popularity throughout Ireland in recent years, with a series of new adaptations on the works of Flann O’Brien, “The Third ...
From: February 23, 2012 20:00 To: February 23, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Jasango Theatre are back with a bang with Geraldine Aron’s achingly funny My Brilliant Divorce. Following a two-year Irish tour and award-winning performances in the USA with Bombshells, Jasango brings you this wittily observant comedy. If you liked Bombshells you’ll love this one! The comedy explores what life is like for Angela Kennedy-Lipsky, recently dumped by her accountant husband for a younger model. Rebuilding her life, she finds herself adrift in a sea of weird sexual encounters, sneaky solicitors, phone-in counsellors, a bad case of hypochondrica and impending poverty. Should she fight to keep her husband? Or should she sign ...
From: February 29, 2012 20:00 To: February 29, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Five chancers present a terrifying tale of temptation and torture, never mind a traveller desperate to find someone to take over his pact and release him from immortality. Who will take on his curse? His only surviving relative? Or a stranger in the depths of despair? Or an innocent child raised on a desert island with no knowledge of the world? Or the clowns compelled to play out this extraordinary tale of temptation, desire and cannibalism who may well have bitten off more than they can chew... Comic surrealism meets shock horror in this series of ridiculous situations where ...
The End (Starting in 1 month) Theatre
From: March 8, 2012 20:00 To: March 8, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The End, a short story by Samuel Beckett, began in English and finished in French. In it a man recounts an episode late in his life when, having been expelled from an institution of care, he finds his own way in the world. He meets a variety of characters and situations before finally lying down to let life ebb away. It is one of Beckett's most complete, most compelling and most beautiful works and is a Gare St Lazare favourite. Making its premiere at Kilkenny Arts Festival, The End has since toured the UK (Brighton, Liverpool. Edinburgh, Oxford), New Zealand ...
Shoot The Crow (Starting in 1 month, 1 week) Theatre
From: March 13, 2012 20:00 To: March 13, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Four tillers (Ding Ding, Petesy, Randolph and Socorates) are working on a Belfast building and dreaming of better things. There’s an opportunity to make a few bob on the sly, but not all of them can commit the same petty crime. The hilarious and moving Shoot The Crow considers the relationships we develop with the people we work with and what most of us really think about the jobs we spend most of our lives doing. Following the 2011 critically acclaimed tour, this homage to the working man stops off in Ballina having delighted audiences around the world from ...
From: March 25, 2012 15:00 To: March 25, 2012 17:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The students of the Leonard School of School of Speech Drama & Communication in association with students of The Connor School of Music present two exciting and colourful dramatic & musical adaptations, ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Adventure’ & ‘Beauty & the Beastly Creature’, in their spring showcase. In ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Adventure’, the audience is invited to join Charlie on a magical, fun-filled, delicious, adventure as he and his family find good fortune while encountering some colourful, entertaining characters on their journey. ‘Beauty & the Beastly Creature’ is an enchanting tale of love and intrigue as the beautiful Bríd, ...
From: April 3, 2012 20:00 To: April 7, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Names Upon the Water is the true story of 14 young people who left their homes in Addergoole near Ballina and set out on the Titanic for a new life in America. Only three of them completed the journey. The loss of the other 11 amounted to the greatest proportionate loss of life of any village, town or city in the world, on that fateful night one hundred years ago. The story follows the fate of characters such as Delia McDemmott whose purchase of a new hat played a strange part in her fate; the Bourkes whose staunch family loyalty ...
Recent Theatre Events
From: March 25, 2010 20:00 To: March 25, 2010 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
From the Shoulders DownPJ Mulpeter, now sixty-five years of age, begins his final working day as a builder’s labourer, having ‘soldiered’ for fifty years with the same ‘outfit’ Murray & Sons Construction. In a reflective mood, he casts a backward glance at the highlights of his ignominious ‘career’ on the ‘pick and shovel’, combining humour with pathos, love, loss, rejection and regret, but never without hope. After sell-out performances around Ireland, Richard Lynch brings this unique piece to Ballina Arts Centre for one night only. From the Shoulders Down depicts the life and times of PJ Mulpeter, but it takes ...
From: May 6, 2011 20:00 To: May 7, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Mayo Youth Theatre present 'Around the World in 80 Days' written by Philip Brennan & Stephen Colfer and directed by Niamh McGrath. The English gentleman Mr. Phileas Fogg, enters into a wager whereby he will circumnavigate the globe and return to his starting point. The wager is between Fogg and his friends at the 'Reform Club' (an organisation of wealthy men) and the stakes are high. Between them Fogg and his friends own the lease on an orphanage. The others want to close it down and sell it but Fogg wagers his half of the orphanage in an effort to save ...
From: May 11, 2011 14:00 To: May 11, 2011 16:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Starring Mary McEvoy, Fruitcake starts off as a cookery demonstration but is in fact an account of one woman’s life and how each ingredient reminds her of past memories and decisions made which ultimately changed the course of her life. Even though some lessons came late she now lives a fruitful, productive life because of this. Funny and poignant, this play has something for everyone. ‘Fruitcake‘ by Alice Barry was commissioned by Meath County Council Arts Office and first performed as part of the Meath Bealtaine Festival 2010. A co-production with Noggin Theatre Company, Fruitcake will tour as part of the 2011 ...
From: June 10, 2011 20:00 To: June 10, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Written by Joanna Murray-Smith, featuring Angela Ryan and Jasmin Finn and directed by George B. Miller, Jasango Theatre's Bombshells is a rip-roaring, explosive and hilarious evening spent with several generations of women on the edge. From the fame-seeking teenager to the frenetic young mother to the simmering widow and the exultant, terrified bride, these women will surprise and delight you in this series of vivid monologues. Following a successful run at Galway’s Bank of Ireland Theatre Bombshells went on to be one of the highlights of the Theatre Stage Mindfield Programme at Electric Picnic 2009. In keeping with Jasango’s ...
From: June 16, 2011 20:00 To: June 16, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The Tell-Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man. The murder is carefully calculated and the murderer conceals the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the narrator’s guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that his victim’s heart is still beating under the floorboards. The Tell-Tale Heart is widely considered to be a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and one of Poe’s most famous short stories. Stephen Doyle’s work ranges from physical theatre to ...
From: July 20, 2011 20:00 To: July 20, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The ever popular Beezneez Theatre Company present this rollicking summer farce. Don't Dress for Dinner is a frenetic comedy of mistaken identity with more twists than a corkscrew. When Jacqueline decides to visit her mother for a few days, her husband Bernard sees an opportunity for a cosy weekend with his new mistress. His bachelor pal Robert calls to announce his return from Hong Kong, so Bernard invites him along as his alibi, also hiring a Cordon Bleu-level cook to cater a delicious dinner. But when Jacqueline realises Robert is coming for a visit everything changes, and the high speed ...
From: September 1, 2011 20:00 To: September 1, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Written and performed by Aindrias de Staic, and after four years of touring to every theatre, stage, stable, pub, club and street corner, Around the World on 80 Quid! finally comes homes to roost. What started as a bit of story-telling with a few tunes at the revolutionary Project 06 movement in Galway, gradually grew to a comedy show winning awards at Edinburgh Fringe, and now, for one night only, the show comes home to Mayo. The hectic journey of a musical Backpaker who rambles the world to eventually find himself and his music as he backpacks across Australia. This unique ...
From: September 16, 2011 20:00 To: September 17, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Doubt: A Parable Riverside Theatre Friday 16th & Saturday 17th September, 8pm Set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in Autumn 1964, ‘Doubt: A Parable’ focuses on head nun Sister Aloysius’ suspicions, that the young and enthusiastic Father Flynn is having an improper relationship with an African-American altar boy, Donald Muller. JP Shanley's Pulitzer Prize winning play is filled with intrigue and tension right to the grippiong finale. Doubt: A Parable is the first production by the newly-formed Riverside Theatre Company and is directed by Ray Collins. Adm: €10 / €8 (conc). Booking advised
From: October 13, 2011 20:00 To: October 13, 2011 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Cooking with Elvis Bruiser Theatre Company Thursday 13th October, 8pm Directed by Lisa May, Belfast-based Bruiser Theatre Company presents ‘Cooking with Elvis’ by Lee Hall. Cooking with Elvis is an explosively funny shock to the system and definitely not for the prudish! A tragic farce about domestic turmoil, sex, loss, regret...and cooking! First performed in 1999, winning accolades from audiences and critics alike at the Edinburgh Festival, writer Lee Hall (of Billy Elliot fame), gives the script a wicked, darkly comic feel, combining pathos and humour, making this thoughtful romp hotter than an Elvis hip swivel! Perfect theatrical fare for dark ...
From: October 16, 2011 14:00 To: October 16, 2011 18:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Lambert Puppet Theatre Sunday October 16th, 2pm & 4pm (2 performances) The Lambert Puppet Theatre is now widely recognised as the Premier Puppet Theatre Company in Ireland and also internationally renowned for its many fine productions in Theatres throughout Ireland, The UK and Europe.. From its earliest beginning the Lambert family has been involved with RTE TV, working on the hugely popular series Wanderly Wagon featuring the Late Eugene Lambert and Judge. Paula Lambert was the 'Bosco' voice on TV for seventeen years and indeed Bosco is still a firm favourite with the younger ...
