Solemn Mass For A Full Moon In Summer

Project Upstairs, Dublin Previews Mar 5-7 €15 Opens Mar 9-28 7.30pm €25/€20 Sats 3pm €18 01-8819613

Michael Tremblay was born in 1942 in Montreal, the largest city in the province of Quebec. He grew up in slum-like conditions, raised by six women, to be one of Canada’s foremost writers with a formidable output of novels and plays in French.

Outspokenly gay, his controversial politics – notably in relation to the movement that sought the independence of Quebec – often set him against the establishment; but the force of his work, translated into many languages, established him internationally.

Rough Magic's production offers, in a new translation by Bryan Delaney, the Irish premiere of Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, inspired by the structure of a choral mass. Eleven people stand on their city balconies and tell stories of guilt, love, grief and heartbreak. Within this ground-breaking fusion of form and style, Tom Creed directs a cast to conjure with, including Cathy Belton, Jane Brennan, Darragh Kelly, Barry McGovern and Diarmuid Noyes (above). Written in 1996, the play still resonates with the unmistakable buzz of creativity.

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