Category Archives: Curriculum Plays

Curriculum Play Live 2022

This is the fifth annual productions in our series of the classic plays on the English Syllabus produced by Barnstorm Theatre Company performed in the Watergate Theatre to serve both schools in the region and general audiences.

Previous plays were Translations by Brian Friel in 2016, The Plough and the Stars by Sean O’Casey in 2017, the American classic ALL MY SONS in 2018 and The Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge in 2019 which all proved to be over-whelming successes with schools (some travelling from Dublin and Limerick) and with the general public. The 2022 production Philadelphia, Here I Come! will have a local cast of actors, designed by Harry Harris and directed by Philip Hardy.

Gar O’Donnell, frustrated with the small-town life of Ballybeg, is about to set off for America, not in search of fortune so much as a change of scene. He doesn’t long for an American Dream but escape: from a dysfunctional relationship with his father, from a lost love, from a hundred petty frustrations.

Dates & Times:

Booking at Watergate Theatre:

www.watergatetheatre.com or Tel. 056 7761674

Curriculum Play Live 2019

This is the fourth annual production in a partnership between Barnstorm Theatre Company and the Watergate Theatre to serve both schools in the region and general audiences.

Previous plays were Translations by Brian Friel in 2016, The Plough and the Stars by Sean O’Casey in 2017 and the American classic ALL MY SONS in 2018 which all proved to be over-whelming successes with schools (some travelling from Dublin and Limerick) and with the general public.

We are delighted that the 2019 production is Synge’s great comic masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World which will have a local cast of actors, designed by Harry Harris and directed by Philip Hardy

This is the fourth annual production in a partnership between Barnstorm Theatre Company and the Watergate Theatre to serve both schools in the region and general audiences.

A small community in County Mayo is thrown into a furore with the arrival of Christy Mahon, a mysterious stranger claiming to have killed his father. The local men aren’t sure if he’s a danger and the local women find him fascinating.

Pegeen Mike prefers his company to that of her dull fiancée and the Widow Quin sees him as a possible new husband.
But what happens if the truth is far from the tales?

When first staged in Dublin in 1907 JM Synge’s play caused a riot. Two years later the young Synge was dead but his play was to become a masterpiece in Irish and world theatre.

In modern society where instant celebrity is the common goal and only a click away on social media, where fake news and rumour holds power over fact, Synge’s hilarious commentary on 19th-century Ireland is never more relevant than it is today.

Dates & Times:

Booking at Watergate Theatre:

www.watergatetheatre.com or Tel. 056 7761674

All MY SONS is amongst Miller’s best known plays alongside A View from the Bridge, The Crucible and Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman.

America 1947. Despite hard choices and even harder knocks Joe and Kate Keller are a success story. They have built a home, raised two sons and established a thriving business. But nothing lasts forever and their contented lives, already shadowed by the loss of their younger son to war, are about to shatter. With a return of a figure from the past, long buried truths are forced to the surface and the price of their American dream is laid bare.
 
 
ALL MY SONS is another Curriculum Play Live! co-production between Watergate Theatre and Barnstorm Theatre Company. This partnership is committed to developing projects in close collaboration with teachers and students studying these texts. In doing this we produce works for the stage by some of the greatest international writers.
 
 

“You don’t realize how people can hate, they can hate so much they’ll tear the world to pieces.”

 
 
The cast includes:
Brendan Corcoran, Mags Whitley, John Prendergast, Aoibhin Murphy, Shane O’Keeffe,
Dee Gibney, Jim Carroll, Natasha Murray, Steve Nolan, Kate Lanigan, James Larkin

All My Sons runs at Kilkenny’s Watergate Theatre from Nov 28 – Dec 1

Performances:

Booking 056 7761674 or visit Watergate Theatre

 
Our inaugural production was of Translations by Brian Friel in 2016 and in 2017 Seán O’Casey’s The Plough & the Stars. Both were a tremendous success.

A Joint Barnstorm-Watergate Production

Barnstorm Theatre Company and Watergate Theatre present a joint production of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars this coming November and December. The first such co-production was Brian Friel’s Translations in 2016, which had a huge and enthusiastic reaction from schools and the public alike in a truly great production, and the audience feedback was very positive:
 

‘Incredible performances all round, stunning set and visuals, all in all a wonderful theatre experience…’

‘I’ve seen it myself four times and this production was superb. The students really, really enjoyed it … to see it performed live is so, so good.’

 
As with Translations, The Plough and the Stars is being presented under the banner of  Curriculum Play Live,  and the producers are confident that it will appeal to both the general public and schools in the region; and that it will enhance insight and understanding of this great work.

‘This is a challenging but hugely exciting play to produce and we are looking forward to getting to grips with it,’ says Barnstorm’s Philip Hardy who will direct the play.

 
The Plough and the Stars premiered in 1926 at the Abbey Theatre in the writer’s native Dublin. The first two acts take place in November 1915, looking forward to the liberation of Ireland and the last two acts are set during the Easter Rising, in April 1916.

The actors appearing are from across the southeast, including familiar faces from plays presented over the years by Watergate Productions, Barn Owl Players, KATS and Devious Theatre: Delia Lowery, John Whitely, Jim Carroll, Natasha Murray, Mags Whitely, Niall Bambrick, Philip Brennan, David Brydone, Mary Byrne, Paula Drohan, Peter Healy, Aoibhín Murphy, Seán Walsh and John Prendergast.

Performances: Wednesday, November 29th to Saturday, December 2nd; nightly at 8pm with performances for schools at 10.30am on Thursday and Friday.

For more information, go to watergatetheatre.com/shows/

Tickets: €18 / €15

For the reduced school/ group ticket price, please contact Watergate Box Office on 056 7761674

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Barnstorm Theatre Company and the Watergate Theatre partnered in 2016 to present a very special joint production of Brian Friel’s Translations.

Translations by Brian Friel was one of the greatest in the Irish canon of classical plays and as it is included in the Leaving Certificate English Curriculum, this productions is the first in a new venture Curriculum Play Live! featuring actors from the southeast, including familiar faces from plays presented over the years by KATS, Watergate Productions, Barn Owl Players and Devious Theatre.