TIME WAS

Presented by Playroom Theatre Company 9th - 11th July 2009

An outlandish comedy by the masterful playwright Hugh Leonard. Time Was is a light-hearted look at the past, the present, and the basic rule of life: the past is always better.

P.J. is a typical upper-middle class man, stuck with a typical upper-middle class wife, typical upper-middle class friends, and a severe case of nostalgia. He is one of the many people in Ireland who are so absorbed in the simplicity and romanticism of the past, that Time itself is beginning to bend under the pressure. All around Ireland there have been mysterious dissappearances, and sightings of stange people who look like they belong twenty or fifty or even several hundred years ago. If P.J. doesn’t start liking the present-day soon, something’s got to give!

Time Was is a ludicrous situational comedy, which also delivers quite a thorough examiniation of the act of reminiscence, and the motivations that drive us to yearn for a past we can never recover.

Call 021-4505624 for Booking Info

OVER THE PUB

WORLD PREMIERE!!
Cork Arts Theatre
Presents
“Over the Pub”
12th - 22nd Aug
The Irish adaptation of the wildly successful
American comedy “Over the Tavern” by Tom Dudzick in Collaboration with “Our” Artistic Director Dolores Mannion

A Play for Cork, Set In Cork, About A Cork Family and Cork People will love it (the truth being anyone who sees it will love it)!!!

Meet the Murphy’s and get ready to laugh, and be touched as well. It’s Cork 1963 and Pat and Ellen Murphy live above their pub with their four children, aged 12 to 16, each offspring hell-bent, or at least Purgatory-bent, to make mischief. Toss in a septuagenarian nun who’s devilish with a ruler, everyone’s concerns about faith and sex and family relations, and it’s a hilarious feast, even without the mushy peas! As funny as the play is, what really makes it work is the humanity of the characters playwright Tom Dudzick creates. The Murphy’s are not great people with great problems. These are real people with real problems.

Often referred to by theatre critics as “the Catholic Neil Simon,” Tom Dudzick has created a series of semi-autobiographical comedies that have played successfully in theatres from New York to Los Angeles and a hundred cities in between. His plays have broken the box office records broken box office records all over the America.
In collaboration Tom Dudzick Our Artistic Director, Dolores Mannion brings a new version of “Over The Tavern” to an Irish audience.
Over The Pub

A Play for Cork, Set In Cork, About A Cork Family and Cork People will love it (the truth being anyone who sees it will love it)!!!

Having a good time in the theatre, spending quality time with people we care about and enjoying the experience, has almost become a thing of the past. One of the great joys of “Over the Pub” is that you will be nodding your head in recognition as you are wiping tears of laughter out of your eyes.

Religion!!!!
Oh how that word and topic saturates cultures and societies all over this world.
Religion can cause nations to go to war, and politicians can use it for a myriad of reasons to boast their policies, speeches, and theories. Then there’s that good ole rule of separation of church and state. Ireland more than anywhere we have had so much bad press…”I am in the name and shame camp” But you have speak as you find and for me my Convent school day where among the happiest I have known. So regardless of your choice for house of prayer, religion has affected us all in one way or another.
Cork Arts Theatre latest production offering is a comedic yet touching view of Catholicism in Tom Dudzick’s Over The Pub.
Meet the Murphy’s and get ready to laugh, and be touched as well. It’s Cork 1963 and Pat and Ellen Murphy live above their pub with their four children, aged 12 to 16, each offspring hell-bent, or at least Purgatory-bent, to make mischief. Toss in a septuagenarian nun who’s devilish with a ruler, everyone’s concerns about faith and sex and family relations, and it’s a hilarious feast, even without the mushy peas! As funny as the play is, what really makes it work is the humanity of the characters playwright Tom Dudzick creates. The Murphy’s are not great people with great problems. These are real people with real problems.

It is Spring 1963 and we are taken into the Murphy’s household, a Cork Catholic Family and who deal with a slew of problems concerning everything from nuns, to sex, mood swinging parents, finances ... right down to why they have so many sugar-coated cereals in the cupboard. Dudzick has been referred to as the “Catholic Neil Simon"." I severely disagree with those labels. Dudzick’s play Over The Pub is immensely more touching and funny than much of what Simon has written in the last decade. Dudzick’s play has endless laughs and even puts a lump in your throat. The Catholic humor is the surface lure. This play is really about family life, and it warmly engages the audience because it portrays that life with accuracy, affection and a resistance to overdoing sentimentality.
If you love theater and excellent acting, then this is a must see production! The tour de force performances, excellent direction, and solid design elements will not disappoint you. Get ready to laugh nonstop for two hours, and maybe wipe a tear or two along the way.

Over The Pub By Tom Dudzick (World Premiere)
Cork Arts Theatre
Director Dolores Mannion
Design John Jordon
Stage Management Magenoon
Lighting James Cummins

CAST:
Annie Murphy..... Laura Noonan
Mikie Murphy........ Lorcan Finnegan
Ellen Murphy .......... Fionula Linehan
Sister Mary Agnes…. Roisin FitzGerald
Pat Murphy........ Gerry Conway
Eddie Murphy ... Don Morrissey
Tommy Murphy.. Mark Crowley

BOOK EARLY YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS IT
Summer Special 2 tickets for €20
Normal price €15 each 12 conc.
Bookings 021-4505624

BONFIRE NIGHT & ARSEHAMMERS

Part of Cork Arts Theatre’s “Irish Plays and Performances” Lunch Time season 15th - 17th July & 29th - 31st July

Call back theatre Company bring you this 45 minute show, written by Claire Dowie, directed by John Sheehy and performed by Cora Fenton, comprises a pair of deeply darkly comic gems: Bonfire Night, in which a daughter takes her sweet revenge and Arsehammers, where a grandchild is sure that her grandfather’s strange disappearances reveal supernatural powers.
The delivery is natural and conversational. It’s very funny: the subjects are serious but there is a wicked sense of humour underlying everything. Both Bonfire Night and Arsehammers have characters who are perfectly ordinary and yet completely extraordinary.

Director: John Sheehy

Cast: Cora Fenton

All our Summer Lunch time theatre Performances will run Wed - Fri doors open at 12.45pm with show starting 1.10pm. A bowl of Delicious Soup will be included in your ticket price of €10 (If you book before 11am on the day of the performance)
All performances will finish before 2pm
Groups welcome
Call 021-4505624 for bookings

THE MURDER MONOLOGUES

Part of Cork Arts Theatre’s “Irish Plays and Performances” Lunch Time season 1st - 3rd July & 5th - 7th Aug

Red Lotus Productions’ debut performance ‘The Murder Monologues’, written by Jane Mulcahy, offers a unique insight to the darker elements of the female psyche. In this ‘why dun it’, Pam and Imka reveal their reasons and methods behind their cold-blooded murders to the audience.
Directed by Mary Curtin.
Starring: Kate McSwiney O’ Rourke and Irene Kelleher.

SON OF DERRY RULER OF NONE

Part of Cork Arts Theatre’s “Irish Plays and Performances” Lunch Time season 22nd - 24th August

Set in the heart of the troubles, Son of Derry Ruler of None tells the story of Jimmy O Shaughnessy a well to do Catholic from Derry.

A bike messenger for the IRA from a young age, Jimmy in his adult life is forced to make a choice that will cause him to flee Derry and shatter not only his life but also the generation to follow.

A poignant and sometimes hilarious story that follows a father of seventeen children as he embarks on a new life in Cork, but unfortunately the events of the past have a way of dictating the future.

Written and performed by Cork actor Damien Tracey, whose many theatre and writing credits include, Roddy Doyle’s Brownbread, The Children of Lir, Deidre of Sorrows and Why I didn’t Kill Myself a Comedy.

Damien is very excited to bring this fast paced, gripping, heart rendering family saga from its workshop phase at Drama Studio London where he is currently studying to the Cork Art’s Theatre and other venues throughout Munster this summer.

WRITERS WEEK

WRITERS WEEK
For the past Twenty Nine year’s the Cork Arts Theatre have run a writer’s competition. Each year a number of entries have had their work performed at the theatre. With three of Cork’s most promising upcoming director’s at the helm, 2008’s shortlisted plays will be performed over the period of one week, with a prize giving to be held after the final performance. Two or more of the play’s will be performed nightly. It promise’s to be a wonderful event.

This year’s shortlisted play’s are:

TRUE COLOURS BY MARIE O’MEARA
The Action of the play takes place on the day Carrie, estranged from her inlaws, comes to make peace with her mother-in-law. The Theme of the play is dark ,but humorous and light in places.

THE SLOW AWAKENING BY AINE DE ROISTE
A house is being sold and the auctioneer shows it to a number of viewers. The stories and connections between these viewers as well as the auctioneer, unfold as the play progresses.

S O S BY MARIE HIGGINS
Harry, redundant, tired of answering to bosses, would like to set up a business on his own. He interprets a dram as a message from his sub-Conscience “Why not promote swan as a luxury food?” Anna his wife does not share his enthusiasim.

REACTIVE AGE GROUP by Breda Nathan:
Alice - eighty two years old, discovers while visiting her dentist that her son Marcus and daughter-in-law Arleen, have been checking out the value of her house in Glasnevin. They are planning on moving to Dalkey and Alice, a widow, feels she is surplus to requirements and may end up in a nursing home. She confides in her friend Marian - who tells the rest of the ‘Active Age’ group.

21ST – 25TH July @ 8pm
Call 021-4505624 for bookings

LOVERS & GRIEVENCE

LOVERS (WINNERS)
Two one act plays Brought to you by Blackthorn Theatre Company who brought you the hugely successful “Prisoners” and “Hamlet” The first section of Lovers by Brian Friel, titled “Winners” follows the story of two teenaged lovers, Joe and Mag - who are expecting a baby. Due to Mag falling pregnant they are both asked to leave their schools out of disgrace for what they have done. The play is set atop hill with Mag and Joe revising for their final exams. This short play is beautiful, gripping, involving, and memorable

GRIEVANCE BY STEPHEN LYNCH
Grievance, a new play written by Blackthorn member Steven Lynch, examines the lasting effects of abusive relationships. James, a recovering alcoholic, has just lost his wife of many years, and it is on the day of her funeral that a long-running conflict between the man and his son Steven comes to a head. While James has changed his ways and become a different man to the husband and father who abused both alcohol and his family, Steven is unwilling to let the past go as the death of his mother reopens old wounds.

6th – 8th Aug @ 8pm

Call 021-4505624 for bookings

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED)

C’nC productions presents The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
is a parody of plays by William Shakespeare, with all of them performed in shortened form by only four actors. Life is short. The complete works of Shakespeare are long, so here are all 37 Plays in 97 Minutes! An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, This show is a high-speed roller-coaster type condensation of all of Shakespeare’s plays, and is not recommended for people with heart ailments, bladder problems, inner-ear disorders and/or people inclined to motion sickness

a slapstick show that summarizes the playwright’s stage work (with the sonnets thrown in) in 90 roller-coaster, rib-tickling minutes. After warming up with a nothing-is-sacred send-up of Romeo and Juliet, they’re off, dispensing with the comedies in one fell swoop (because the tragedies are funnier).Never read Titus Andronicus? No problem; it’s presented here as a cooking show. Can’t keep your Shakespearean histories straight? Visualize them as a football game. Wondering what exactly is the deal with that guy Othello? Hear his story as a rap song, and the show’s unforgettable finale - Hamlet - told with the help of audience members and lascivious sock puppets. Best of all, whether you know Shakespeare inside out or have yet to read a word of him, The Complete Works will have you in stitches.
(Info about the original show ) The play was written by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1987 and later played at the Criterion Theatre in London, where it ran for nine record-breaking years. It has become one of the world’s most popular shows, playing frequently in a variety of languages. It is notable for holding the (self-proclaimed) world record for the shortest-ever performance of Hamlet, clocking in at 43 seconds.

24th - 29th of August
Call 021-4505624 for more info

AN IRISH SONGBOOK

Part of Cork Arts Theatre’s “Irish Plays and Performances” Lunch Time season

Join Cork baritone Brendan Collins and friends on a
musical journey through Ireland as they perform well-loved
songs including Danny Boy, Macushla and a few surprises!
Brendan will be joined by soprano Joan O’Malley and Cork
pianist Eoin O’Callaghan for this trip down musical
memory lane.

Disney Musical Summer Camp

Dramatic Action Stage School

The same company who brought you the highly
successful High School Musical Camps last Summer

PROUDLY PRESENTS:
DISNEY MUSICAL SUMMER CAMP

Learn the songs and dances from all your
favourite Disney Shows Including:

HANNAH MONTANA, CAMP ROCK,
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, AND MANY MANY MORE!

All Children Will Learn Skills In Theatre Performance
...be it Dance, Drama & Singing!
VENUE: CORK ARTS THEATRE, CAMDEN COURT,
CARROLLS QUAY, CORK CITY.

MONDAY JULY 6TH - FRIDAY JULY 10TH
9AM - 2PM DAILY

A SHORT PERFORMANCE FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS
WILL TAKE PLACE ON THE FRIDAY.

This fun filled week is a great way for children to
keep fit, have fun and meet new friends!

OPEN TO BOYS AND GIRLS 5 - 15yrs
LIMITED PLACES AVILABLE

TO MAKE A BOOKING CONTACT
Ciara On 0872917661 or Rob on 0851554582.