Moving stories for the stage
Traumatic or liberating, the move to a new home is often a memorable event from which good stories are made. That's the thinking behind an innovative theatre project, Tea Chests and Dreams: A Night of First Nights, which is offering seven women writers the chance to hear their words on stage. "The play tells the story of five women moving into a house on the same Dublin street over a period of 40 years," says the playwright Dermot Bolger. "And as the experience of moving house is both universal and unique, I thought that it would be fascinating to give the chance to a new woman writer to tell her own real-life story as a prologue to the play each evening."
Tea Chests and Dreams, which will run for seven nights, at Axis in Ballymun, and the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, from Wednesday, April 11th, is about beginning again. It will celebrate what unites generations of women, from all backgrounds and walks of life, for whom moving in also means moving on.
To add to the mosaic of lives being portrayed, Bolger is inviting women of all ages to submit a 600-word account of their recollections of their first night in a new home. Each performance of Bolger's play will then open with a one-off public reading of one such text, either by the woman who wrote it or, if she prefers, by an actor. Submissions should be made by March 23rd, by email to teachestsanddreams@gmail.com or by post to Tea Chests and Dreams Competition, Axis Arts Centre, Main Street, Ballymun, Dublin 9. See axis-ballymun.ie.
Giving birth to poetry at the Coombe
It’s International Women’s Day on Thursday, and among the many events planned, one that grabs the eye is an evening of poetry with top Irish writers at the Coombe Women Infants University Hospital, in Dublin. The celebration, to be launched by the President, Michael D Higgins, is part of an initiative to introduce poetry to the hospital; the public are welcome (doors close at 7.20pm).
The poets Dermot Bolger, Katie Donovan, Paul Durcan, Paula Meehan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Enda Wyley, and the writer Colm Tóibín, have all donated work for display in the hospital corridors and will take part in the readings on the night. There will also be music from Colm Mac Con Iomaire.
Dr Chris Fitzpatrick, master of the Coombe, says that “more than 9,000 mothers give birth here each year . . . It is wonderful to have the opportunity to welcome President Michael D Higgins and a host of rich cultural talent into the heart of our busy hospital.”
If you'd like to attend, contact Laura Forde (lforde@coombe.ie or 01-4085320). See coombe.iefor details.
Fellow writers at Trinity College workshop
Each year the school of English at Trinity College Dublin, in conjunction with the Arts Council, offers a free writing workshop with the current Trinity Writer Fellow, who this year is the novelist and playwright Philip Davison. Author of the novels McKenzie's Friendand The Long Suit, as well as stage, radio and TV plays, Davison will be giving his workshop on two Fridays, March 23rd and 30th (6pm to 9pm), and two Saturdays, March 24th and 31st (10am to 1pm).
To apply, submit a piece of prose, of no more than 1,000 words, by post only but including an email address, to the Irish Writer Fellow Workshop, Oscar Wilde Centre, School of English, Trinity College Dublin, 21 Westland Row, Dublin 2, by Friday, March 9th. For details, email lifoley@tcd.ie. Applicants will be told by email whether they have been selected.
