Upcoming Audio Described Performances at The Abbey Theatre
Release Date: Oct 1st, 2008
Audio-description provides vision impaired and blind audiences with a live commentary of the visual elements in a live performance through individual headsets. Audience members also receive programme notes in advance in Braille, audio or large-print giving them detailed information about the set, characters and costumes. Tickets for audio described and captioned performances can be booked through the Abbey Box Office and advance booking is strongly recommended. These services are facilitated by Arts & Disability Ireland, with funding from The Arts Council.
Happy Days by Samuel Beckett
A National Theatre of Great Britain production
Audio described performance - Saturday 25 October 2.00pm (PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF PERFORMANCE TIME)
Ah yes, so little to say, so little to do, and the fear so great, certain days, of finding oneself… left, with hours still to run, before the bell for sleep, and nothing more to say, nothing more to do, that the days go by, certain days go by, quite by, the bell goes, and little or nothing said, little or nothing done. [Raising parasol.] That is the danger. [Turning front.] To be guarded against."
Blazing light, scorched grass. Buried to above her waist and woken by a piercing bell, Winnie chatters away as she rummages in a bag, brushes her teeth, pulls out and kisses a revolver. Her husband, Willie, studies a pornographic postcard. A second bell signals the end of another happy day.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see one of theatre’s richest and most enduring creative partnerships – actress Fiona Shaw and director Deborah Warner – working on one of Beckett’s greatest plays.
'one of the greatest Beckett performances I have seen' Sunday Times
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui By Bertolt Brecht
Audio described performance - Saturday 6 December 2.00pm
Times are bad. Prices are rising. House prices are falling. There’s a recession looming. A new leader is needed. It’s 1930s Chicago.
With a winning smile, a machine gun and an army of hoods, local crime boss and aspirational tyrant Arturo Ui sees an opportunity. He offers protection and freedom - at a very large price.
Brecht’s both alarming and hilarious farce about the rise of a fascist dictator has all too many modern parallels. Originally written in 1941, the play is a highly satirical, no-holds-barred allegory of the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany. All the characters, groups and situations in the play had direct counterparts in real life.
With his characteristic verve, Jimmy Fay (The Seafarer, The Playboy of the Western World, Saved) directs a disconcertingly funny and unflinching version of this European masterpiece.
The Playboy of the Western World
In a new version by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle
Audio described performance - Saturday 17 January, 2.00pm
It’s back!
By popular demand, Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle’s hilarious version of Synge’s great classic, The Playboy of the Western World, returns for your delight this Christmas. This hugely successful production of the Abbey’s most(in)famous play was loved by audiences and critics alike during its first run in 2007.
In this bang up-to-date version, the action has been moved from the West of Ireland to a pub in west Dublin. The Playboy, Christy Mahon, is now Christopher Malomo, a well-educated refugee from Nigeria, on the run after he ‘killed’ his father with a pestle for pounding yams.
With this rousing new version, Synge’s extraordinary play re-discovers its ability to tell the truth of a contemporary Irish experience and continues its legacy, as vibrant as ever.
Marble By Marina Carr
WORLD PREMIERE
Audio described performance - Saturday 14 March 2.00pm
Two friends. Two marriages. One dream of marble.
"It's as if my real life is happening when I go to sleep and you and I are a dream, a fragment, difficult to remember on waking. Being awake is no longer important"
As the line between real life and the dream world blurs, jealousy grips and life for Ben and Catherine, and for Art and Anne begins to unravel.
In this taut, funny and incisive new play, Marina Carr (Woman and Scarecrow, Ariel, By the Bog of Cats,The Mai, Portia Coughlan) lays bare the nature of desire and fidelity, courage and anxiety. Marble is a compelling play about friendship, marriage and the power of the subconscious.
'Carr's writing is savage: it is mordant, acerbic and deeply human.' Sunday Tribune
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Audio described performance - Saturday 2 May 2.00pm
It’s amazing how much can happen in one day.
One man is sentenced to death, another finds love. One wife finds her long lost husband, another finds she has two husbands!
In Shakespeare’s darkly mischievous The Comedy of Errors, two sets of identical twins are separated in childhood. Years later, they all show up in the same place at the same time. The Comedy of Errors tells the story of a father, mother, brothers, sisters, masters and servants, all of whom find themselves confused, baffled and bewildered by the events of a single day.
The team that brought you the hugely popular Romeo and Juliet (2008) and the soaring production of Julius Caesar (2007), returns to the Abbey with this modern take on Shakespeare’s earliest romantic comedy.
HOW TO BOOK FOR PERFORMANCES AT THE ABBEY:
The Abbey Box Office is open Monday - Saturday 10.30 am - 7pm, The Abbey Theatre is located at Abbey Theatre, 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.
By phone: call 01 87 87 222 (No booking fee)
On-Line: log on to www.ticketmaster.ie (Booking fee applies)
By email: boxoffice@abbeytheatre.ie
By Post: to Abbey Box Office, Abbey Theatre, 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. Please enclose a cheque marked payable to the Abbey Theatre.
By fax: to +353 1 879 7390 marked for the attention of Box Office.
Please detail the date, time and event and number of tickets and include a contact number or email address.