Laughter on the menu

Two West Cork divas are bringing a dinner show to Dún Laoghaire next weekend – “a musical comedy full of song, laughs, pathos and Tupperware” – that promises to be something completely different. The Eileen Marilyn Experience, a cabaret developed by actors Karen Minihan and Terri Leiber, has been touring West Cork for a few years. In it, local girl Eileen and blow-in Marilyn become friends in spite of their differences. Eileen is a respectable civil servant and obsessively house proud; Marilyn, a former actress from England, is fond of dogs, horses and one-night stands with red-faced farmers.

In the Dún Laoghaire show, this odd couple take over their local community social. Marilyn wants cocktails and pole-dancing with Macra na Féirme lads; Eileen just wants to run everything.

“People like coming to our Eileen and Marilyn Experience shows because it’s like a soap opera,” says Minihan. In real life, she and Leiber are good friends and cofounders of PlayActing Theatre in Schull. Minihan, once a family-law solicitor, lives there; Leiber lives in Ballydehob. Both are blow-ins – Minihan from Clonakilty, Leiber from England – but love living in West Cork.

The Eileen and Marilyn show, with musician Norman Collins, is at the Promenade Cafe on the seafront, next to Teddy's ice-cream shop, after supper at 7pm on January 25th and 26th. Tickets for dinner and the show cost €35. See promenadecafe.ie, tel: 01-2148710.