Barnstorm Bench Tales – The world premiere of three new exciting plays in a series of open-air performances on park benches – a co-production with Kilkenny Arts Festival. Clandestine meetings and chance encounters – the socially-distant audience will ‘spy’ on the drama from afar in a unique theatre experience (needs to be seen!).

Bench Tales – There is Always Tomorrow A chance meeting between a young woman and an older man on a park bench may not be all that it seems.  Why has she come here and what is she looking for?  As she attempts to uncover the truth, is she fully prepared for what she might find?

Bench Tales – Pink Makes the Boys Wink A comic, full of heart story about getting old. How time can creep up on us and take us by surprise. A story about three women. One woman’s compassion. One woman’s fear and one woman’s joy in Hello magazine.

Bench Tales – The Last Trip to Tipp  It’s 1994. Lorraine, Emma and Mairead are three friends heading in very different directions. Well not literally. Right now, they are all on their way to Féile – and with a line up like Crowded House, Primal Scream, The Prodigy, The Cranberries, Björk, and Blur – the craic will be fierce. With one mouldy tent, ancient sleeping bags and a fine slab of Lindon Village cans, they wait on a lift from their flaky friend, Suzanne – who’s late as usual.

Over the two years of lockdown Barnstorm developed a number of exciting projects with writers, actors and directors from the region with the Confinement Monologues and Love In Lockdown both online and live.

Bench Tales was conceived as an innovative way of presenting live theatre to a socially distant audience and there were 25 script ideas from the initial call-out which was refined to the three plays you witness today. Challenging doesn’t cover it, but excitement and discovery is the overall feeling for over 30 of us involved in making Bench Tales an intriguing and somewhat voyeuristic experience for all.

Barnstorm is delighted to work in partnership with Kilkenny Arts Festival team in the process of making this project a reality.

Dates                                      Mon 14^th to Sat 19^th Aug 2023

Times                                      11:00, 13:00 (lunchtime) & 15:00

Running Time                        approx. 80 minutes

Ticket prices                          €20 (€17 concession)

Where                                     3 locations in Castle Park (check with KAF)