Whether you’re a theatre fan, or you’re just keen to get into the arts a little more, then you’ll love our 2019 round up of what’s on in the Abbey Theatre for its upcoming season.
Ireland’s National Theatre has launched its 2019 line-up and it’s an impressive variety of performances, where you’ll be sure to find something that tickles your fancy – most of the line-up have audio and sign language interpreted showings too, making their 2019 season open to all.
Have a look at what’s coming up in the new season and grab the best deal possible while you can…
Come From Away (until January 19)
Awarded the Tony® for Best Direction of a Musical, Christopher Ashley’s production guides audiences through a colourful and spirited cast of characters, brought to life by Tony® and Grammy® nominated writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
This joyous new musical shares the incredible real-life story of the 7,000 air passengers from all over the world who were grounded in Canada during the wake of 9/11, and the small Newfoundland community that invited these ‘come from aways’ into their lives.
Free First Preview is December 6. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Tuesday January 15, 7.30pm.
Book your tickets here.
The Ridleys (January 15 – 26, Peacock Stage)
‘A writer who sees not only the worst but also the best in humanity…’ The Guardian
‘Ridley, as ever a master of lyrical unpleasantness… lacerating excruciating theatre, which leaves the audience exhausted and speechless’ – Evening Standard
The Irish Premieres of Philip Ridley’s compelling companion plays, both darkly hilarious, searingly honest and painfully poetic.
Free First Preview: January 15. Tickets start from €13 and you can snap up Early Bird tickets up until January 1
Book your tickets here.
24 Hour Plays: Dublin (February 3)
After sold-out shows for the past seven years, The 24 Hour Plays: Dublin is back for the eighth year in a row to benefit Dublin Youth Theatre.
Within 24 hours, six short plays will be written, rehearsed and performed by the best of Irish writing and directing talent and over two dozen of Ireland’s most recognised and beloved stars of stage and screen.
The creative team of six playwrights, six directors, and over 25 actors will be announced in the coming weeks. All proceeds from this special gala fundraising event go directly to Dublin Youth Theatre.
Book your tickets here.
Glasgow Girls (February 13 – 16)
Glasgow Girls is the song-and-dance-filled Scottish musical drama based on the true story of seven teenagers, whose lives change forever when their friend and her asylum-seeking family are forcibly taken from their home to be deported.”
Early Bird tickets are available until January 1. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Thursday February 14, 7.30pm.
Book your tickets here.
The Country Girls (February 23 – April 6)
“Edna O’Brien revisits her era-defining debut novel in a new stage adaptation. When her novels were first published in the 1960s they were ruled “indecent and obscene” under the Censorship of Publications Act.
Not only was the publication of The Country Girls banned in Ireland, it was publicly burned by the clergy. Notoriety quickly turned to fame and this coming of age story of two young women in 1950s Ireland became a best-seller.”
Free First Preview is February 23. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Thursday April 4, 7.30pm and an audio-described and captioned performance on Saturday April 6, 2pm.
Early bird tickets are available until January 15. Book your tickets here.
Opera Briefs (March 26 – 30)
An introduction to the next generation of singers and stage technicians in the first-known opera by a female composer.
Set on Alcina’s magical island, Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina is a glorious mixture of choruses, arias, recitatives and madrigals.
Early Bird tickets are available until February 15. Book your tickets here. Be quick – all dates are selling out fast!
Ulster American (April 9 – 20)
David Ireland’s latest award-winning play was the most talked-about show of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. Ulster American is confrontational and brutally funny – not for the faint of heart.
“Exploring abuses of power, the confusion of cultural identity and the silencing of the female voice, Ulster American is confrontational and brutally funny – not for the faint of heart, and not to be missed.”
Book your tickets here.
In Our Veins (April 10 – 20, Peacock Stage)
A new play by Lee Coffey, In Our Veins follows their family through 100 years of Dublin, from the notorious madams of the Monto to love in the dark tenements.
This is the story of a Dublin City that no longer exists, where it came from and the people that helped build it. The Free First Preview is on April 10 and Early Bird tickets are available until March 15. The Abbey will also hold a sign language interpreted performance on Wednesday April 17, 8pm.
Book your tickets here.
It Was Easy (in the end) (April 26 – May 4)
Žižek said, “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Their story will prove, it was actually quite easy in the end.
A company of millennial artists has moved off the grid to live by a new philosophy. This explosive docudrama is their story. The Abbey’s new co-production with THEATREclub explores imagination as an act of resistance.
Early Bird tickets are available until March 15, tickets start from €13. Free First Preview April 26.
Trad (April 29 – May 11, Peacock Stage)
“There’s a child belonging to me wandering around out there for seventy years and I never met him. I’ve a trip left in me… Get me leg!”
Mark Doherty’s award-winning Trad tells the hilarious story of 100-year-old Thomas… and his father. Together they set out to discover the son they never knew he had.
The Abbey will also hold a sign language interpreted performance on Thursday May 9, 8pm.
Book you tickets here.
Dublin Dance Festival: Session (May 10 – 11)
‘Dunne takes Irish dance into territories new, deconstructing tradition in wryly funny, intimate and experimental pieces.’ The Guardian (on Colin Dunne
‘Enormously exciting and inspiring. He thinks with his knees and his body in a way that is quite remarkable. It is like having the most conscious clay you could ever have.’ Antony Gormley (on Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui)
This is a rare opportunity to see a performance by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, an exceptional dance artist who fuses eclectic influences including martial arts, hip hop, Kathak and jazz into his unique choreographic style.
Book your tickets here. There will also be a post-show talk held on Saturday May 11
Dublin Dance Festival: La Natura Delle Cose (May 14 – 15)
‘The universe of the choreographer Virgilio Sieni could be that of David Lynch in cinema. Magical and enigmatic.’
Liberazione
‘Carried by the four male dancers, the female figure seems to float in the air, suspended, without ever touching the ground during the first part of the show. A delicate and unforgettable image, like a dream.’
Il Manifesto
In a performance of overwhelming beauty, five dancers move as a single body to create a rich visual poem that presents the masked character of Venus at three stages of life.
Book you tickets here.
Dublin Dance Festival: Rosas danst Rosas (May 18 – 19)
‘Riveting and exhausting, fascinating and relentless, brilliant and tedious, it is a mesmerizing exploration in synchronicity, patterning and rhythm.’ The New York Times
‘Rosas danst Rosas remains confrontational, retaining its considerable power to baffle, frustrate and intrigue.’ The Observer
An international breakthrough, Rosas danst Rosas became a benchmark in the history of postmodern dance and is regarded as one of the great artworks of the late 20th century.
Book you tickets here.
Citysong (May 25 – June 8)
Citysong is a play. It’s a poem. It’s a chorus of voices showing us three generations of a Dublin family on one day, and it turns out one day holds the entire past.
It’s modern day Dublin’s Under Milk Wood via Metamorphoses. (Not the book about the cockroach.) It’s different things at different times, which makes sense seeing as it’s about change.
Free First Preview is May 25, with Early Bird tickets available until April 1. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Thursday June 6, 7.30pm and an audio-described and captioned performance on Saturday June 8, 2pm. There will also be a Touch Tour of Stage and Set on Saturday 8 June at 12.45pm
Book your tickets here.
All Ireland Drama Festival (June 6 – 8, Peacock Stage)
A performance by a finalist in the 2019 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival, the winners of the Abbey Theatre Award will be announced next year.
5X5 (June 10 – July 12)
Running from mid-June to mid-July, the aim of 5×5 is to increase the range of voices on our national stages. The Abbey Theatre wants to hear from communities who feel marginalised and silenced – they want to hear their stories.
Communities can suggest an idea or a project they want to develop and five artist groups are selected, supported with five days in the Peacock with technical assistance and €5,000 to cover the costs.
Do you have a story to tell? Apply here.
The Unmanageable Sisters (June 14 – August 3)
Deirdre Kinahan’s new version of Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles-Sœurs returns! It’s Ballymun in 1974 and 15 women gather together for a ferociously funny night.
During one fateful night, these determined women bring you into their lives in the ferociously funny The Unmanageable Sisters.
Free First Preview is June 14, with Early Bird tickets available until July 1. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Friday July 26, 7.30pm and an audio-described and captioned performance on Wednesday July 31, 2pm. You can also see the stage and set on Wednesday July 31, 12.45pm. Book your tickets here.
Please note: Performance times vary depending on the day. Please take extra note of your performance time when booking.
Two Pints (June 24 – August 10)
‘Roddy Doyle’s series finds skilful new shape in the Abbey’s pub-crawling two-hander’ – The Irish Times
After two sold-out tours of pubs across Ireland and the UK, Roddy Doyle’s ‘achingly, breathtakingly funny’ Two Pints takes to the stage the summer.
The hilarious and provocative Two Pints started as a conversation on Facebook. Now it’s a play. Two men meet for a pint. They talk about their Da’s, death, Nigella, North Korea, the afterlife…
Settle down and listen in as they chew the fat and set the world to rights.
Free First Preview is June 24, with Early Bird tickets available from March 20. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Thursday August 1, 7.30pm and an audio-described and captioned performance on Wednesday July 31, 7.30pm.
Book your tickets here.
Young Curators Festival (July 29 – August 10)
Young Curators is a unique training ground for those with a passion for theatre aged between 18 and 25. The young curators group have attended various Irish festivals over the past year and are currently working with The Abbey Theatre staff to programme their own two week festival on the Peacock Stage, which will be announced in March 2019.
The Beautiful Village (August 31 – September 14)
On a quiet suburban street in Dublin, a piece of graffiti tears apart a group of neighbours, exposing a deep divide between them.
This Beautiful Village is a play about power, by Associate Playwright, Lisa Tierney-Keogh. It breaks open the wounds of hurt women to reveal a story as relevant in Ireland as anywhere. It is an urgent message that exposes every side of the complex and ugly reckoning we are all facing.
Free First Preview is August 31, with Early Bird tickets available until July 15. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Thursday September 12, 7.30pm and an audio-described and captioned performance on Saturday September 14, 7.30pm. There will also be a Touch Tour of Stage and Set on Saturday September 14 at 12.45pm.
Book your tickets here.
Dublin Fringe Festival (September 7 – 22)
The festival of bold ideas, brave performing arts and adventurous audiences returns.
Full info and line up available in 2019.
Last Orders at The Dockside (September 23 – October 26)
After the success of Ulysses, Dermot Bolger and Graham McLaren reunite to present this new play as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 2019.
Following the death of an elderly docker in Dublin Port in 1980, his friends gather in a local pub, The Dockside, to celebrate his life. In an evening awash with songs, sharp Dublin wit and tales about work on the docks hidden tensions expose the fault lines in their complex relationships.
Free First Preview is September 23, with Early Bird tickets available until August 1. The Abbey will also hold a sign-language interpreted performance on Thursday October 24, 7.30pm, an audio-described and captioned performance on Saturday October 19, 2.00pm and a Touch Tour of Stage and Set on Saturday 19 October at 12.45pm
Book you tickets here.
Visit their website for full information on all of the shows taking place in The Abbey theatre in 2019.
Topics:
RELATED ARTICLES
MORE FROM Lovin Dublin
MORE FROM Lovin Dublin
