A magical new play featuring:
Joseph M. Kelly
Mary Murray
Nabil Shaban
Directed by Maureen Collender
Designed by Robert Lane
Lighting design by Lee Davis
Original music by Eanna Hickey
In an initiative partly funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, artists Pádraig Naughton and Jacqueline Carey were invited to participate in the designing of the set for Knocknashee under the direction of Robert Lane. The purpose of the indicative was to add to the skills of the artists and encourage their creative potential in a new discipline.
Padraig's chief responsibility was the creation of design drawings for the landscape which is an important part of the sets' background. The style of the landscape is based very much on Padraig's current work in charcoal and is being used to full effect to enhance the changing mood in the play. These drawings are being scaled up by specialist landscape/set designer Jack Kirwan.
The Plot
It is May Eve, a traditional Irish fairy festival and Knocknashee is alive with magic, mayhem, merriment and menace. Patrick Annan, a physically disabled artist, Brigid Carey, a recovering drug addict and Hughie Dolan, a lonely rural misfit are drawn together to celebrate, by the forces of this forgotten culture. Whilst these three extraordinary people seek friendship, solace and even love, the unforgiving landscape threatens to disgorge a terrible secret.
About Tall Tales Theatre Company Ltd
Maureen Collender and Deirdre Kinahan founded Tall Tales Theatre Company Ltd. in 1997. It is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, The Dublin City Enterprise Board, Dublin
Corporation and FAS.
Tall Tales produce plays, tour productions and run theatre workshops for children, youth, community and marginalized groups. It is our belief that theatre has the potential to change the lives of the people who make it and the people who watch it. We exist to produce quality, innovative and artistically exciting theatre and to provide access to the arts for the wider community, particularly women. Our programme of theatre focuses on new female writing, devised works and contemporary drama.
In 1997 Tall Tales produced three Irish premiers: Lettice & Lovage by Peter Shaffer, Three Tall Women by Edward Albee and Tomb With A View by Norman Robbins (Dublin Fringe'97). The company also toured with a Play by Samuel Beckett.
In 1998 the company premiered The Positive Hour by April De Angelis and staged two devised works - Blooming & Brazen based on extracts from Ulysses by James Joyce and Lord Arthur Saville's Crime based on the short story by Oscar Wilde.
1999 saw the expansion of company activities. We ran a series of workshops for children at The Dublin Writer's Museum and facilitated theatre workshops for many community and marginalized groups. Tall Tales worked in collaboration with Amlima International street theatre Company and The Saint Patrick's Festival to create the award winning pageant Rain Dance. The company then produced Be Carna, a new Irish drama written by Deirdre Kinahan, which explored the lives of women working in prostitution in Dublin. Be Cama went on national tour before featuring at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Glasgow Civic Theatre. Finally Tall Tales staged the acclaimed production of Catastrophe by Samuel Beckett at Kilmainham Gaol as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival 1999.
In 2000 the company increased the number of drama workshops and produced a dramatised Festival of Stories by female Irish writers in the Victorian library of The Royal Irish Academy.
In 2001 Passage a new Irish drama by Deirdre Kinahan produced in association with The Civic Theatre, enjoyed an excellent run at the Civic and a short national Tour. Womanly Whims, a festival of tales written and preformed by new female Irish Writers and directed by Maureen Collender opened at The Dublin Writers Museum on August 2001.
2002 sees the world premiere of Knocknashee, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan produced in association with The Civic Theatre. Knocknashee is a story of friendship. Three lonely people plagued by poverty and prejudice are drawn together for an event long neglected by the local community, the traditional Fairy-fest. Beleaguered by the demands of a prosperous and pressured new Ireland it is the resilience and humour of these three extraordinary people, which guarantees their survival. In the magical environment of Knocknashee they will find solace, acceptance and even love.