2024. This season we have a programme of seven unique and eclectic shows.
DRAWDA | Drogheda Urban Art and Audio Trail
1st Jan 2024 - 31st Dec 2024
Drogheda Urban Art Trail – Embracing our mythological past
DRAWDA - a curated multidisciplinary public arts programme, launched in Drogheda between November 2021, and April 2022, culminating in an Urban Art Trail throughout Drogheda that focuses on key figures and moments from our mythological past.
Seven murals that focus on key figures and moments from mythology, with an Audio Trail! Pick up your printed map from Droichead Arts Centre, Love Drogheda BIDS or local business’ or view it digitally online below. Then, take a stroll throughout Drogheda following the trail, and use your smart device to scan the code and listen to the mythological stories behind the murals!
Bruised Orange | John Prine Tribute | 31st August 2024 |
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: €25
Bruised Orange is Irelands premier John Prine Tribute band.
Boasting some of Ireland most experienced musicians the 5 piece band is made up of Michael ‘Mike Mack’ McGarry (Rhythm Guitar & Vocals), Anthony Toby Cregan (Lead Guitar, Vocals), Derek Matthews (Bass & Vocals) Steve Milne (Keyboards) and Shay Carry (Percussion).
Each member brings a unique set of talents and abilities to the group which provides for a unique live John Prine experience. The band have extensively toured Ireland for the past three years receiving 5 start reviews from leading critics from Ireland and afar.
The show is fronted by Mike Mack McGarry who accurately reflects John's vocal range with similar ease of delivery, an affected twang and drawl; which thrive of a peculiar, domestic relation to country, folk, rhythm and blues. His storytelling and short antidotes are also a testament to a Bruised Orange live show, Lead guitarist Anthony Toby Cregan is one of Irelands most revered guitarists, His style and playing reflects that of Jason Wilbur, Prine's go to guy from the early 1990’s up until Johns death. Bassist Derek Matthews is known from one of Irelands top wedding bands ‘Stop the Clock’.
His double bass and look again reflects that of Prine's bass man Dave Jacques.
On keyboards is Steve Milne who has spent decades on tour with Daniel O Donnell and Mary Duff, Steve is one of Irelands most talented musicians. Drummer Shay Carry is the backbone of the band with his unique style. Shay has toured with some of Irelands top country artists.
An Evening with Kelley Swindall & Scout Willis | 7th September 2024
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: €15
We are delighted to announce a fantastic night of music and welcome to Droichead's stage Kelley Swindall and Scout Willis.
Equally, at home in a biker bar or under a proscenium arch, Kelley Swindall takes the stage solo, armed with her moxie and an acoustic guitar, singing about the stuff classic country, folk, and blues is made of: heartache, heartbreak, revenge, redemption, life, death, and those pesky existential musings in between. Her debut studio album, “You Can Call Me Darlin’ If You Want”, was release via NYC-based Velvet Elk Records in September of 2020, to glowing reviews, with American Songwriter declaring “Swindall affirms her place with ‘You Can Call Me Darlin If You Want'”.
Scout Willis is an artist, musician and writer. Scout rides the emotional waves of life with a seeker's heart and tenderly molds each experience into the perfect offering - her songs.
Scout's 2022 self-titled album beckoned us into her temple and bestowed listeners with a treasure trove of rare gems - the type of tracks to keep you company and carry you through your own peaks and valleys. Scout‘s upcoming album is a brewing storm on the horizon, a coming stampede that will take you on an unforgettable ride.Tickell, Michael McGoldrick, Julie Fowlis and Zakir Hussain.
Film Club Autumn 2024 | 10th September - 17th December 2024
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: 10 films for €60
Film Club is back for Autumn 2024. Droichead Arts Centre in partnership with Access Cinema, are delighted to welcome back our Film Club members, with a season of engaging and beautiful films from around the world, once again curated by Sinead Brassil and Niall O'Brien of LMFM's film review segment 'Reel Reviews'.
We promise you the wild, and wonderful, the best and most breath-taking independent cinema of the world with 10 amazing films for only €60!
Tue 10 Sep | LA CHIMERA (2023) | Adventure/Comedy | Italy, dir Alice Rohrwacher
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but can never find. For Arthur, the Chimera is the woman he lost, Beniamina.
Tue 17 Sep | ROSALIE (2023) | Romance/Drama | France, dir Stéphanie Di Giusto
In 1870s Brittany, Rosalie is a young woman who hides a secret: she is a bearded lady. In an effort to not to be rejected, she forces herself to shave.
Tue 8 Oct | THE SPARROW (2022) | Drama | Ireland, dir Michael Kinirons
Wild teen Kevin Coyle grapples with guilt over a deadly secret. As his world unravels and consequences mount, Kevin is pushed to confront the truth in a heart-wrenching climax that will change him forever.
Tue 15 Oct | SHAYDA (2023) | Thriller/Drama, Australia dir Noora Niasari
A young Iranian mother takes refuge in an Australian women's shelter with her six-year-old daughter during the two weeks of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Her path to freedom is jeopardised when her estranged husband arrives.
Tue 22 Oct | MONSTER (2023) | Drama/Mystery, Japan, dir Hirokazu Koreeda
Single mother, Saori Mugino, is worried by her son, Minato's strange behaviour, which leads to a revelation about Minato's schoolteacher, Mr. Hori
Tue 29 Oct | SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING (2023) | Romance/Comedy, USA, dir Rachel Lambert
Ghosting through life, lonely office worker Fran finds solace in her cubicle, listening to the constant hum of officemates and occasionally daydreaming to pass the time but unable to pop her bubble of isolation, when a friendly new co-worker, Robert, persistently tries to connect with her.
Tue 5 Nov | AMA GLORIA (2023) | Drama/Animation | France, dir Marie Amachoukeli
Six year old Cléo loves her nanny Gloria more than anything. When Gloria must suddenly return to Cape Verde to care for her own children, Cléo makes her promise that they will see each other very soon. Gloria invites Cléo to her island and the two must make the most of their last summer together.
Tue 19 NOV | THE CRIME IS MINE (2023) | Crime/Comedy | France, dir François Ozon
In 1930s Paris, Madeleine, a pretty, young, penniless and talentless actress, is accused of murdering a famous producer. Helped by her best friend Pauline, a young unemployed lawyer, she is acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. A new life of fame and success begins, until the truth comes out.
Tue 10 Dec | I LIKE MOVIES (2022) | Comedy/Drama | Canada, dir Chandler Levack
Socially inept 17-year-old cinephile Lawrence Kweller gets a job at a video store where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.
Tue 17 Dec | KNEECAP (2023) | Comedy/Musical | Ireland, dir Rich Peppiatt
When fate brings a Belfast teacher into the orbit of self-confessed 'low life scum', the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other.
Nightvisiting | Lisa Lambe | 13th September 2024
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: €20/18
Based on her work with the National Folklore Collection and her recent M.A. in Irish Folklore, internationally acclaimed Irish folk singer Lisa Lambe brings us her new project, ‘Nightvisiting’, first commissioned by The National Famine Museum in Strokestown, County Roscommon. Since 2023, Lisa has been Nightvisiting all across Ireland, America, and the UK in concert halls, churches, old schoolhouses, village halls, and theatres. Lisa collaborates with renowned traditional musicians to create a unique performance bespoke to each venue she visits.
‘Nightvisiting’ reconnects us to the social role that nighttime social house visits once played in our oral traditions and folklore, and in the preservation of our songs and stories, from tender love songs to songs of loss and longing. In the West, Nightvisiting is known as ‘Bothántaíocht’ or ‘Cuairtaíocht’; in West Cork and Kerry, it is known as going ‘Scoraíochting’. In other counties, it is referred to as a visit to the Rambling House.
‘Nightvisiting’ will bring those who gather to the hearth of the rural house to sing the old songs and tell the local stories, many now lost or forgotten. Nightvisiting was an important part of our social society and culture, which began to fade with the electrification of Ireland in the late 1940s when the hearth slowly gave way to the ballroom, the public house, and the dance hall. ‘Nightvisiting’ is a celebration and a reimagining of those nights of sharing the old songs and stories, joined by Claire Sherry, Tim Doyle, and Mike Brookfield. Join us for a very special night.
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Droichead presents Theatre Club Autumn/Winter 2024 | 27th September to 30th November 2024
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: 6 plays for €90
Droichead are thrilled to announce our THEATRE CLUB for Autumn/Winter 2024. This season we have a programme of six incredible shows, a trip off-site to the Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre and some exciting new works in progress, including one by poet/playwright Dagogo Hart.
The season will kick off with ‘Breaking’ a groundbreaking first play by Amy Kidd presented by Fishamble and the poignant, story of the LGBTQ+ communities in 70’s Belfast ‘Callings’ from Kabosh Theatre Company, Belfast, also featuring new work from Gúna Nua, and Little John Nee, with Deirdre Kinahan's Outrage and Fishamble closing the season.
Set up in 2017, and heading into its 13th season, Droichead Theatre Club brings audiences together to see a play, and like a book club, our audiences can share their views, thoughts and impressions informally post show with the cast and creatives. If this is your first or your 50th play, it doesn't matter, come along, and be part of the drama at Droichead.
Six great plays (including two works in progress) for €90 including ticket & return bus trip from Drogheda to the Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre. BOOK ONLINE or call 041 9833946 to be part of the Drama at Droichead.
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BREAKING | Written by Amy Kidd | Directed by Jim Culleton | Fishamble | FRI 27 SEP | 8PM
‘You can be a bit naïve sometimes.’
Welcome to the world of Sam and Charlie in Breaking, a groundbreaking first play by Amy Kidd. It looks like love, but it tastes like control. How do we judge, when we can’t trust our own judgement? Who do we distrust and who gets the benefit of the doubt?
Breaking asks fascinating and profound questions about how we navigate a world without any simple answers.
MAGIC PLAY | Written by Liam Wilson Smyth | Directed by Paul Meade | Gúna Nua Theatre | THU 3 OCT | 8PM
Alastair Caspar invites you to witness his very last show. In an audacious move, the renowned magician is hanging up his cape and taking over the city in a bid to capture hearts and regain a lost love. What will happen when his meticulously planned mentalism begins to unravel?
Can Alastair keep all the plates spinning, give you something to believe in, and still pull redemption from a hat?
Written by Liam Wilson Smyth and produced by award-winning Gúna Nua Theatre, Magic Play combines comedy, close-up magic and questions of faith and belief in an original and thrilling fusion of magic and theatre.
CALLINGS | Written by Dominic Montague | Directed by Paula McFetridge | Kabosh | SAT 2 NOV | 8PM
Charged with iconic music from the era of the 70s, Callings explores the LGBTQI+ community's survival amid anti-gay headlines, showing how simple connections can change lives.
The play follows Bridget, Helen, Martin, Jason, and Tommy, who found sanctuary through CaraFriend, a 1970s support service. The play highlights their resilience during oppressive times, their resistance against anti-gay campaigns, and their celebration of victories like the Dudgeon vs. UK trial, reflecting on historical challenges and progress.
SAFE HOUSE | by Enda Walsh and Anna Mullarkey | THU 7 NOV | 8PM
Exclusive Theatre Club Trip to the Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre
When the world doesn’t want us or isn’t enough, we make our own worlds.
In an outdoor handball alley in the Irish countryside – amongst rubbish and debris– a young woman, Grace, is living alone.
Through song, music, recorded voice, and film, we’re outside looking at Grace and then inside her fractured thoughts – trying to make some sense of it all. Her past arrives broken and chopped up. The present skips forward and days flip into night, seasons jarring into one another.
SAFE HOUSE is a song cycle, a gig, a smashed-up memory play played out in a handball alley.
NETTLE HORSE | by Little John Nee | THU 28 NOV | 8PM
Little John Nee’s new musical comedy features memorable characters like Dandelion Ní Houlihan, a 103-year-old Boston benefactor. Dispossessed families travel west after winning a lottery by a corrupt councilor under Dandelion’s influence.
In Gortnapuca, carpenters await a building frenzy, Mink Devine sells edible beetles, and a boy finds solace with a circus horse. Set in the near future, Nettle Horse blends storytelling, song, and satire, inviting audiences to a parallel universe. Little John Nee, an award-winning writer, performer, and musician, is known for his unique musical storytelling that is both hilarious and heart-breaking.
OUTRAGE | 30 Nov | by Deirdre Kinahan | Directed by Jim Culleton | Fishamble |SAT 30 NOV | 8PM
‘War makes heroes and demons doesn’t it, so how could war in Ireland be any different?’
Told through two sisters, OUTRAGE explores women's roles in the Irish revolutionary wars, focusing on the Civil War's impact on their minds, bodies, and souls. Alice and Nell are key in arming revolutionaries, organizing civic resistance, and leading the propaganda war. They are fervent, funny, and deeply conflicted as Ireland heads towards a shattering Civil clash that split the nation and continues to haunt Irish politics, society, and culture. OUTRAGE challenges the historical narrative we have all grown up with.
Stockwell Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth.