KILDARE ENTERTAINMENT: It’s Happy Days at the Riverbank in Newbridge
Blue Raincoat, one of Ireland's most celebrated theatre companies, and the only full- time ensemble are delighted to present Happy Days by Samuel Beckett at Riverbank Arts, Newbridge on Thursday, March 2 as part of a national tour.
In Happy Days we find Winnie, a woman in her 50s, buried waist-deep in the centre of a mound of scorched earth, with little else around other than a large black bag and a collapsed parasol. Behind her and hidden from view sleeps Willie (John Carty).
A piercing bell rings, stops, rings again, and Winnie wakes and looks at the sky.
Blue Raincoat Theatre Company have been touring their work throughout Ireland for over three decades with shows such as Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Third Policeman, The Bald Soprano and Shackleton.
This Beckett classic, Happy Days marks the companies 20 th national tour and features long time company members Sandra O Malley and John Carty.
Sandra O Malley is a graduate of the Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique. She studied under Corinne Soum and Steven Wasson, Etienne Decroux’s last assistants. Having performed with their company, she returned to Ireland and has been working with Blue Raincoat Theatre Company since 1997. Sandra has provided workshops both nationally and internationally.
John Carty trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1988. He worked with Co-Motion Theatre Company and Graffitti Theatre Company before returning to Sligo to become a founder member of Blue Raincoat Theatre Company. He has since trained at Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique, London, at the Saratoga International Theatre Institute, New York with Anne Bogart and at the Roy Hart Theatre in Malérargues, France.
John has performed in most of the company’s productions to date.
Set design is by Jamie Vartan and lighting and sound design are by Barry McKinney and Joe Hunt. The production is directed by Niall Henry.
This production was first performed at the companies theatre in Sligo, The Factory, in the Spring of 2022.
Happy Days is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
Blue Raincoat Theatre Company would like to acknowledge the support of Creative Ireland, The Arts Council and Sligo County Council.
Blue Raincoat Theatre Company are Ireland’s only full-time venue-based professional theatre ensemble.
The company and performance space, The Factory, were founded in 1991. Blue Raincoat produce between four and six professional productions each year, with an emphasis on staging modern European classics, new writing and new adaptations for stage.
The company employs a repertory system to tour a selection/some of these productions throughout Ireland and internationally.
Blue Raincoat provides a broad range of professional arts related support for community and cultural programming within their immediate region, including the annual theatre academy at The Factory in Sligo.
Shackleton won Best Set Design in the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2017 which represent the best of Irish theatre. For more info check out www.riverbank.ie