August 2015
Kildare Youth Theatre presents: Indigo & Hospital Food
Indigo, features a cast of 22, is a remarkably moving tribute to Ireland in the wake of the marriage Equality referendum. The piece was first staged at Scotland's National Youth Theatre festival in July, and can now be seen for the first time locally. Directed by Evan Lynch with Kyle Walsh. Hospital Food by Eugene O'Hare It became the third Kildare Youth Theatre production to be selected by the National Theatre on Britain for performance in London's South Bank. This…
Find out more »September 2015
A Row of Blue
Scoil Rince Lár Na Tíre proudly presents: DANCE - A Row of Blue. Founded in 2009 in County Laois as a small adult only Irish dancing class with 13 dancers, Scoil Rince Lár Na Tíre now covers 3 counties with over 50 dancers who compete competitively on a regular basis. Their show will fuse Traditional Irish dancing & Modern day styles to give the audience a night to remember. Dancers from the age of 4 will bring to life stories…
Find out more »November 2015
Newbridge Drama Group presents: Sylvia
Greg and Kate have moved to Manhattan after twenty two years of child raising in the suburbs. Greg’s career as a financial trader is winding down, while Kate’s career, as a public-school teacher, is beginning to offer her more opportunities. Greg brings home a dog he found in the park- or that has found him- bearing only the name Sylvia on her name tag. A street –smart mixture of Lab and Poodle, Sylvia becomes a major bone of contention between…
Find out more »Laochra Gael
Weaved through song, story, music and poetry the play chronicles the tapestry that formed the background to the rising, the insurrection itself and the heroes both celebrated and forgotten. Laochra Gael evokes myriad emotions of love, sorrow, tragedy and triumph, resurrecting much faded from the annals of history. The play, written by local Allenview Heights writer Alan O’Neill, is directed by the award winning Artistic Director and former star of Mrs. Brown’s Boys, Michael Anthony Byrne. The music and songs…
Find out more »March 2016
Newbridge Drama Group: The Real McCoy
The Real McCoy, directed by Bro. Michael Broderick, played here last year to packed houses for 5 nights. It is now back for 3 nights by popular demand. Meet again , hard hearted Madge (Noreen Donnelly)and her daughter Maura (Jo McMahon) who wants to marry the Postman(Mick Malone)...not to mention the priest(B.Cornally) and Nora and Cora)Caroline Malone and D.Dowling) "When it comes to comedy this play IS The Real Mc Coy." Munster Express. "With glimpses of J.B.Keane it had the…
Find out more »April 2016
The House of Blue Leaves
Artie Shaughnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a zoo-keeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night, plying his wares at piano bars in Queens, New York where he lives with his wife, Bananas. Artie’s downstairs mistress, Bunny Flingus will sleep with him anytime but refuses to cook until they are married. On the day the Pope is making a first visit to the city, Artie’s son Ronnie goes AWOL from Fort Dix stowing a…
Find out more »May 2016
Newbridge Musical Society Gala Concert
Newbridge Musical Society, is an Award winning Society, which has staged shows such as 9 to 5, Sister Act, Oliver, Jesus Christ Super Star, Beauty and the Beast and many more over the last few years. They would love you to join them for their Gala Concert on Sunday 29th May at 8pm in the Riverbank Arts Centre. You will be very entertained on the night with many songs from the Musicals and familiar songs from The Beatles plus many,…
Find out more »Inis Free 1916
This is a respectful telling of the 1916 story by the pupils of Patrician Primary School, Newbridge. A mixture of traditional ballads and six original compositions, this is a musical interlaced with light humour, poetic performances and rousing drama. Written and directed by teachers Francis T. Kirke with James Tooher (Staring at Lakes) as musical director, this promises to be a show “with a differ”!
Find out more »June 2016
Enchantment
O'Rourke School of Ballet presents Enchantment. A ballet showcase of all things magical. You will be transported to a fairytale world of magic toyshops, mermaids and enchanted swans by our students this June bank holiday weekend. Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June Time: 1pm and 5pm
Find out more »The Word on the Street
Riff Raff Drama Group Newbridge are back with their new exciting production The Word on the Street, written by Dave Tiernan and directed by Brother Michael Broderick and Catherine Connolly. Somewhere in New York, 1933, Prohibition has ended, there's a new President and times seem to be getting better until a local Mob Boss is found in a dumpster down an alley. Everyone and anyone becomes a suspect to an arrogant Detective, and with half a million dollars and more…
Find out more »Because most of us have not read Ulysses
Eighteen brave readers have “volunteered” to read an episode. They will each be given one minute to share the experience at an informal gathering in the Café on Bloomsday. This event is In association with the exhibition by Gay Brabazon in the McKenna Gallery.
Find out more »Inis Free 1916
This is a respectful telling of the 1916 story by the pupils of Patrician Primary School, Newbridge. A mixture of traditional ballads and six original compositions, this is a musical interlaced with light humour, poetic performances and rousing drama. Written and directed by teachers Francis T. Kirke with James Tooher (Staring at Lakes) as musical director, this promises to be a show “with a differ”!
Find out more »GYT Shout It Out
‘Shout it Out’ is a programme of plays by Griese Youth Theatre. GYT's work this year has explored the role of social media, our unlimited access to information through the online world and how we consent to the use of such information about ourselves. In this centenary year where so much of our time will be spent looking to the past, 'Shout it Out' gives a voice to a generation who are looking to the future and finding their place…
Find out more »November 2016
The Communication Cord
THE COMMUNICATION CORD by Brian Friel is an uproariously funny satire, set in a remote Donegal cottage which has been converted into a weekend retreat for members of the urban elite. In the midst of smoking chimneys, a devious Peig and a smug senator, young love is both thwarted and given stimulus in a welter of mistaken identities. A sultry French ingenue and an amiable German keep the laughter going as the two younger couples stumble towards self-recognition.
Find out more »January 2017
KYT presents Venetians
In 2016 Crooked House received Young Ensemble Scheme support from the Arts Council to develop a project with its youth theatre (Kildare Youth Theatre). The project explored the impact of migration in young people in Kildare. Using the metaphor of Shakespearian Venice, this new work tells stories of those left behind in the mass migration of the last decade, and throws some light on why the runaway Jessica says she is ‘never merry when I hear sweet music.’ Venetians is…
Find out more »March 2017
National Theatre UK Connections: Kildare Festival
For the first time Crooked House Theatre Company brings all of the youth theatres in County Kildare together to showcase their brand new plays for the NT Connections 2017 season, and to take part in workshops and masterclasses for the weekend. Friday 10th March 8.00pm Double Bill Griese Youth Theatre, Ballitore: Zero for the Young Dudes! by Alistair McDowall. Directed by Dee Burke, this is a play about revolution, tyranny, and summer camps by an exciting new…
Find out more »LOCAL ARTS: Daily Appointments
Dr Phillip Daily has his hands full with an array of Patients and their ailments coming and going in his Surgery, things don’t go according to plan when a love struck Porter and an angry Secretary add Confusion and Mayhem to his Appointments. But has the good Doctor got a hidden agenda in this Hilarious new comedy written by Dave Tiernan . Directed by Catherine Connolly & Dave Tiernan
Find out more »May 2017
Kildare Youth Theatre presents KING LEAR
This complex tragedy of a powerful, but ignorant, king who is transformed by the loss of everything into becoming a simple man with nothing except his knowledge of himself and his empathy for his down-trodden people is often cited as Shakespeare’s finest play. It is the great play about homelessness, very relevant today as Ireland grapples with its housing crisis. It also has much to say about wisdom and power, especially in the light of recent political regime change across…
Find out more »Kildare Youth Theatre presents KING LEAR
This complex tragedy of a powerful, but ignorant, king who is transformed by the loss of everything into becoming a simple man with nothing except his knowledge of himself and his empathy for his down-trodden people is often cited as Shakespeare’s finest play. It is the great play about homelessness, very relevant today as Ireland grapples with its housing crisis. It also has much to say about wisdom and power, especially in the light of recent political regime change across…
Find out more »June 2017
Newbridge Drama Group presents Festival of One Act Plays
Newbridge Drama Group makes a welcome return to Riverbank Arts Centre with a special festival of One Act Plays for Newbridge June Fest. An eclectic mix of plays, writers, and directors set to entertain you each night!
Find out more »Local Arts: Griese Youth Theatre
Griese Youth Theatre present an eclectic mix of fantasticial tales from the Middle Ages, comedy and mystery. Double Bill Thursday June 29th at 7pm Double Bill Friday June 30th at 7pm
Find out more »September 2017
Newbridge Musical Society Gala Concert
"Newbridge Musical Society is an award winning musical society which has staged shows such as Sweeney Todd, 9 to 5, Sister Act, Oliver!, Jesus Christ Superstar and Beauty and the Beast, and many many more over the years. They promise a night of great entertainment with familiar songs from the world of musicals and lots of laughter with some hilarious sketches. The perfect way to spend an evening!"
Find out more »November 2017
LOCAL ARTS: Riff Raff Drama Group presents High Hopes For Affairs
The year is 1980, John Hope and his Mother Helen own and run High Hopes Hotel, Business is quiet, and when Helen is absent for some weeks she entrusts her son John to keep things in order, but with wedding plans to sort out John is distracted and when his Fiancé Marie and her Family arrive for the weekend their plans go awry, with more unusual Guests arriving it adds confusion and Mayhem and makes High Hopes Hotel a very…
Find out more »May 2018
LOCAL ARTS: Macbeth
Following on the success of 2017's production of King Lear Kildare Youth Theagtre stage one of Shakespeare's bloodier tragedies. This is the 4th time the youth theatre have staged the play since 2003. This new production explores the dramatic rise of an ambitious couple, hungry for control, despearte to be respected, and ruthless in their pursuit of dominace. It mirrors events on the political world today, from the triumph of far-right leaders in Europe, to the USA, Turkey and North…
Find out more »LOCAL ARTS: The Crucible
Newbridge Drama Group is back, this time taking on Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. It is a story of tender love and murderous jealousy; of lives destroyed by false accusations; of passion and adultery and sin and of a storm of terror let loose through the effects of real and pretended mass hysteria on the part of a number of young girls. Finally, it contains a portrait of the most tender love between two people which has rarely been bettered…
Find out more »June 2018
LOCAL ARTS: Riff Raff Drama Group presents The Work of Art
The Work of Art is set in 1960, rural Ireland. When Biddie’s husband Mick is away in the Congo, Biddie is left to keep her home and family in order but with her son Tommy wheeling and dealing with Biddie’s brother in-law they get on the wrong side of the parish priest, and her daughter Peggy’s new boyfriend Morgan doesn’t help the situation when he claims an old painting is the real deal, madness, sadness and mayhem make this two…
Find out more »LOCAL ARTS: See Me Here
6 years! It’s only 6 years! So why does it feel like a lifetime? Teenager, young adult, adolescent, whatever you call it… it makes no difference to me. I won’t be offended. One moment rushing to the end and the next willing it to last just a little longer. In the in-between, and almost all at once in heaven, in hell, in limbo. You cannot assail me. I’ll make it through. See me here. See me now. is a programme of…
Find out more »July 2018
LOCAL ARTS: Rumours
Neil Simon’s celebrated comedy, Rumours, is sure to have audiences in stitches. When Ken and Chris arrive at Charley’s House for an anniversary dinner, they find their host too dazed to speak and with a mysterious wound to his ear. Is there a scandal to be concealed? As other party guests arrive the evening descends into deception, mystery, and comic chaos, each trying to hide their understanding of the truth from one another in this hilarious romp. Presented by Newbridge’s…
Find out more »LOCAL ARTS: Kildare Youth Theatre presents: The Act of Oblivion
Two plays, two stories. Each starts out at the same time on the stage. One is oblivious to the other. One play fights to be the story that we hear and see. The other will be the one unheard and forgotten. Neither the actors nor the audience knows which play will take control of the stage. No one knows which story will be told in its entirety until the night is over, until the victorious have written the history. With…
Find out more »September 2018
CULTURE NIGHT – KYT present Karamazoo
Karamazoo is a 25 minute monologue for a young performer written in 2003 by London writer Philip Ridley. It is one of the most perfect pieces of writing for a young actor, combining fresh storytelling and comic characterisation that slowly reveals an unflinching critique of a failed social policy through the savage grief of a teenager struggling to cope with the death of a parent. This witty and moving monologue is performed by Joe Brown and directed by Peter Hussey.…
Find out more »October 2018
LOCAL ARTS: Rent
Newbridge’s Odd Theatre Company is delighted to present the spectacular musical Rent at the Riverbank this October, performed with a live band. Widely praised as one of the greatest musicals of all time, Rent has received numerous accolades, including four Tony Awards, and enjoyed a twelve-year run on Broadway. The show tells the tale of eight New York artists over the course of one year of their lives, and is both humorous and touching in equal measure. Having successfully produced…
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