THE BAPTISTE PROGRAMME
The Baptiste Programme is a mentorship development programme for Black Irish theatre makers, starting in 2021. It is named after the 18th century Black Irish singer Rachel Baptiste, who performed to great acclaim here in Smock Alley as well as at other notable and prestigious venues and pleasure gardens of the time. There’s a good article about her over on headstuff which is well worth checking out.
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SMOCK ALLIES : SCENE + HEARD
Smock Allies : Scene + Heard is a festival of new work across live performance genres:
MUSIC – DANCE – THEATRE – COMEDY + SPOKEN WORD
It provides a chance for artists to test an excerpt of previously unseen work or new ideas / formats in front of a live audience in order to get feedback before mounting and staging full length productions.
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SMOCK ALLIES GENERATOR PROGRAMME
This was an in-depth Creative Producer training programme in 2016/2017, comprising of industry-lead seminars, tutorials, practical workshops, one-to-one mentoring and practical hands-on assigned work experience. This was followed by a Production Manager training programme in 2017/2018.
Smock Alley Theatre Co-Productions
Dubliners | 9 – 24 Jun 2022 | Presented by Corn Exchange | Main Space
Adapted by Annie Ryan & Michael West
“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.” – The Dead
The Corn Exchange and Smock Alley Theatre present Dubliners by James Joyce, an extraordinary opportunity to experience Joyce’s masterful collection as part of the Bloomsday Festival 2022.
Dubliners offers an astonishing and enduring portrayal of the city – a mirror in which the people of Dublin, as Joyce once wrote, could take “one good look at themselves”. The stories, sharply ironic, beautiful, despairing and mysterious cohere into what Joyce called “a chapter of the moral history of my country”.
Directed by Irish Times award winning director Annie Ryan this new contemporary production, reconfigured from the hugely successful 2012 production for Dublin Theatre Festival, deftly captures the rich humour, the small cruelties and the celebrated epiphanies of Joyce’s iconic stories.
CAST:
Gabriel Adewusi, Fiona Browne, Tim Creed, Cillian Lenaghan, Emma Reid, Sadhbh Malin, Leah Minto, Alex Murphy
DIRECTED BY Annie Ryan
SET DESIGN BY Sarah Bacon
COSTUME DESIGN BY by Sarah Foley and Mae Leahy
LIGHTING DESIGN BY Eoin Winning
SOUND DESIGN BY Lara Gallagher
All The Angels | 20 NOV – 22 DEC 2021 | Presented by Rough Magic | Main Space
Dublin, 1742. A city emerging from a winter of famine and despair, looking towards the light.
The great composer Handel is the toast of the town, his masterpiece Messiah completed, the hall booked; but in his desperate attempt to put a company of singers together he must work with an untrained voice, the celebrated stage actress Susannah Cibber. Gradually, he is seduced by the quality of her performance and the truth of her expression.
Partly set in the original Smock Alley Theatre this joyous play tells the story of the world’s most popular choral work, from its fraught birth to its glorious outcome; a tale about the complicated, comedic business of putting on a show and the transformative power of music.
Written by: Nick Drake
Directed by: Lynne Parker
Musical Director: Helen Montague
Cast: Brian O’Doherty, Rebecca O’Mara, Ross Gaynor, Megan O’Neill, Owen Gilhooly, Ross Scanlan
Smock Alley Theatre Productions
THE SHAUGHRAUN | 31 JULY – 1 SEP 2018 | Main Space
Written in 1874 by the Irish master of melodrama Dion Boucicault, the themes in this play still ring true – from vulture bankers, rising rents and homelessness, to Anglo-Irish relations and impending Brexit doom. But can love conquer all? That is the question… Smock Alley’s production is a modernisation of this melodrama, musically underscored and imagining ourselves in another post crash Ireland. Is history always destined to repeat itself?
Directed by: Clare Maguire
Cast: Liam Heslin, Aron Hegarty, David Fennelly, Martha Dunlea, Juliette Crosbie, Martha Grant, David O’Meara, Deirdre Monaghan, Jack Mullarkey
THE GRIMM TALE OF CINDERELLA | 5 – 23 DEC 2017 | Main Space
Lost, tired and out of their depth, brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm seek shelter in the woods from a bitter storm. Unknown to them they are not the only ones seeking shelter and a chance encounter with a strange old woman is about to change their fate.
Written by: Katie McCann
Directed by: Jeda de Bri
Cast: Ashleigh Dorrell, Finbarr Doyle, Fionn Foley, Aisling O’Mara, Danielle Galligan, Camille Lucy Ross
THE RIVALS | 31 July – 2 SEPT 2017 | Main Space
Smock Alley Theatre presents as its eighth in-house production, Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s much loved Comedy of Manners, The Rivals. This historical play will be performed here at Smock Alley for the first time since late 1775, in the theatre Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s father Thomas Sheridan was manager of in the 1740’s & 1750’s.
Directed by: Liam Halligan
Cast: Ashleigh Dorrell, Finbarr Doyle, Aislinn O’Byrne, Eavan Gaffney, Deirdre Monaghan, Seamus Moran, Tom Moran + Colm O’Brien
THE SNOW QUEEN | 5 -23 DEC 2016 | Main Space
This Christmas come to Smock Alley Theatre 1662 – Ireland’s oldest (and newest) theatre to meet The Snow Queen!
An exciting family show that will wrap you up in the spirit of Christmas.
Based on the original fairy-tale by Hans Christian Andersen
Written by: Ian Toner
Directed by: Sarah Finlay
Cast: Clodagh Mooney Duggan, John Doran, Nessa Matthews, John Merriman, Aislinn O’Byrne + Gerard Adlum
Set + Costume design: Molly O’Cathain
Lighting design: Bill Woodland
PYGMALION | 2 AUG – 3 SEPT 2016 | Main Space
Eccentric linguistics Professor Henry Higgins attempts to transform unrefined flower seller Eliza Doolittle into a Duchess. For a bet. This hilarious classic of world literature is a satirical take on society’s notions of class, money and the struggle for personal independence. The contemporary themes of feminism and gender prove that Shaw, one of Ireland’s Nobel Laureates, was light-years ahead of his time.
Directed by: Liam Halligan
Cast: Anna Sheils-McNamee, Paul Meade, Gerard Byrne, David O’Meara,
Tara Quirke, Deirdre Monaghan, Jamie Hallahan, Andrea Cleary
Set and Lighting Design by: Colm McNally | Costumes by: Olga Criado Monleon | Sound Design by: Osgar Dukes
A CHRISTMAS CAROL | 7 – 22 DEC 2015 | Main Space
Meet Scrooge, Bob Cratchett, Tiny Tim and be enthralled by this festive family favourite.
This tale as old as time will capture your heart and will set you up for Christmas 2015.
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
Adapted by John Gentile
Directed by Patrick Sutton
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST | 3 – 22 AUG 2015 | Main Space
Brilliant, inventive, witty and absolutely hilarious, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, is probably his greatest achievement. Regarded as the most perfect comedy in the English language, don’t miss out this Summer on a rollicking rollercoaster of romance, wit and earnestness. As Algernon quips, “I don’t play accurately – anyone can play accurately – but I play with wonderful expression.”
Written by Oscar Wilde
Directed by Kate Canning
Lighting and Set Design: Marcus Costello | Costume Design: Olga Criado Monleon
Cast: Charlie Hughes, Katie McCann, Clodagh Mooney Duggan, James Murphy, Aislinn O’Byrne, Valerie O’Leary, Kevin Shackleton
WAITING FOR GODOT | 28 JUL – 23 AUG 2014 | 24 AUG – 11 SEPT 2015 | Smock Alley, Rio de Janeiro, Brazilia
A tragicomedy in Two Acts – Beckett’s play pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post World War II Europe and man’s inexhaustible search for meaning.
‘They give birth astride a grave, the light gleams an instant then its night once more’
This play remains one of the most beautiful and allegorical of our time.
Written By: Samuel Beckett
Directed By: Patrick Sutton
SMOCK! | 13 – 20 JUL 2014 | Boys’ School
The story of Smock Alley is a rollicking ride through two and a half centuries of royalty, roguery and riots. From the skirts of bawds to the Matchless Orinda, the first professional woman playwright in history, Smock! delivers the goods on the players and the priests who built it up, the drunks and duelers who tore it down and the actor managers who gave it world renown. Smock! is forty minutes of culture, comedy and craic.
Written by Martin Maguire
Cast: Thomas Beatty, Gina Burke, Shane O’Regan
PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD | 10 JUL – 5 AUG 2012 | Main Space
One of the most controversial plays of its time, The Playboy of the Western World incited riots at its premieres in both Dublin and New York City. This tale of love, lies and deception sees Pegeen Mike prepare to wed Shawn Keogh until Christy Mahon arrives with tales of heroism and the murder of his father.
Written by J.M Synge
Directed by Patrick Sutton
Cast: Muiris Crowley, Amanda Coakley, Simon Stewart, John Burke, John Delaney, Paul Elliot, Andy Crowe, Caroline Power, Donal Hurley, Elizabeth McGrath, Leah Minto
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER | 17 MAY – 2 JUN 2012 | Main Space
A practical joke and a blind date combine to create a complicated, convoluted plot based on miscommunication and mistaken identities. Big-hearted and ingenious, She Stoops to Conquer is a fast paced romp, a celebartion of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family.
Written by Oliver Goldsmith
Directed by Kristian Marken
Cast: Genevieve Hulme-Beaman, John Burke, Muiris Crowley, Emily Elphinstone, Paul Gibson, roger Gregg, Neil Hogan, Kate Kennedy, Norette Leahy, Simon Stewart