Still We Sing by Martina Collender

Ghent, 1956, autumn. The play opens to find a small group of actors in rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet. We discover these play-actors are being led Nickolas Locke and they are rehearsing the play in brutal conditions, against all odds.

We discover this group of people have been torn from their homes, their lives, the livelihood, the identity, there dignity has been torn from them. Everything they have ever known has been ripped from them. The reason for this is the colour of the skin, there accents, where they come from, who they are, crimes they are accused of committing, none of the reasons make sense. None of these reasons are good enough. They are deeply distressed and confused by the way they are treated by the soldiers, who have come and are forcing them to live in a segregated area. The area they are living is very small, there is three building with no toilet facilities and is expected to be the home for over 1,000 people. If they were to leave they would shot. If they were to escape there is nowhere to go. There is limited food and is rationed out. Every morning they must attend a meeting led by the Commander, a man who has been chosen by the soldiers to deliver news, at these meetings they are told of news about rations, of new people arriving, of certain people expected to leave. This a source of constant worry as they never know what they will be told or not.

The soldiers who man the area, carry guns, and have fists as strong as steel, they aren’t afraid to use.

They characters in the play range from a few weeks old to 50 years old, each passing moment is ticking clock on their lives, each breath they take is bated with fear, each day is a new treat and still, they insist on rehearsing the play, still, the battle on against all odds.

CAST:

Paul Nugent as NICKOLAS LOCKE

Fiana Toibin as KATHERINE LOCKE and NEWSREADER

Iva Kevra as GRACE LOCK and NEWSREADER

Mark Anthony O’Rielly as SAMUEL LOCKE

Tim Casey as JONATHAN ILIC and GENERAL JODI

Ryan Roy as STEPHEN PETROVIC and TOMMY LOCKE

Emmanuel Okoye as ANDREW PETROVIC

John J. O’Hagan as JACK VENEZIA

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

To The Bone by David Donavan

To The Bone is a rural drama exploring the relationship between generations and changing attitudes. Jack is helping his father Bob on the family farm but longs for something more. He faces a crossroad as decisions need to be made and friendships are tested in his journey of self-discovery.

Laurence Lowry as Bob

Paul Nugent as Jack

Aoife Commons as Jess

Patrick de Monfort as Tom

Fiana Toibin as Mary

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

Class of 2025 by Diandra Xavier

Anisa Kapoor is on the brink of adulthood, juggling school pressure, family expectations, and the endless chatter of her virtual assistant. When she’s asked to give a graduation speech, she must choose between perfection and honesty.

Vivian Birungi as Anisa

Brigid Leahy as Alexa

Brian Robinson as Barista

Rebecca Rose Flynn as Eimear

Shruti Shandilya as Mum

Fiana Toibin as Redwood Principal

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

Tenterhooks by John Morton

Tenterhooks is a darkly comic drama about two strangers, adrift in their lives who keep meeting in various suicide black spots over the course of a summer. Brid is a self-styled damsel in distress looking for a knight in shining armour to rescue her. She lives alone in a big house in the country and is searching for someone to take an interest in her life and connect with. Jimmy is a recently unemployed taxi driver who stakes out suicide spots looking for souls to rescue. He lives at home with his uncaring mother and abusive stepfather and is struggling to get a foothold on his life.

Both consistently bump into each other by chance but due to miscommunication, they struggle to create a bond. Eventually both of their lives take drastic turns for the worse as they both court death and their plights become more dire. With no help in sight, they are forced to cling to each other. But how long can either of them hang on for?

Pattie Maguire as Brid

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

Home by Carol RooneyDirected by Anna Nugent

‘Home’ is a monologue play following three generations of a Dublin family during the first half of 2020.

Eileen a Clontarf native is enjoying every moment of retirement and all the social activity she can, her niece Niamh is heading into her 50’s and feels overwhelmed with her familial and work commitments and is concerned with her son Adam’s disinterest in the impending leaving certificate.

Eileen falls and is admitted to hospital, due to her injuries she is sent to convalesce in a nursing home and lockdown then ensues, her positive outlook dwindles over the months as she unable to leave. Niamhis still mourning the loss of her own parents from recent years and is unable to realise the reality of the struggles facing her aunt and son. Adam has recovered from childhood cancer and the loss of freedom and opportunity through lockdown impact heavily on his mental health.

Adam and Eileen share a bond not defined by age and in a time of intolerable anguish he assists her to make her own decision about her care.

Cast

Eileen - Helen Roache

Niamh - Fiona Browne

Adam - Adam Gallagher

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

Jammie Dodgers by Ciara Gillan is a workplace comedy set in Berlin about a group of office temps from various countries (Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, the U.S.) who are determined to do as little work as possible, outsmart their manipulative boss, delay adult responsibility and not sleep with each other. They fail on all counts. Jammie Dodgers is a show that explores that time in your early twenties when, despite your best efforts, you start becoming an adult and making the choices that will determine your future.

Directed by Anna Nugent

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

Jammie Dodgers by Ciara Gillan is a workplace comedy set in Berlin about a group of office temps from various countries (Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, the U.S.) who are determined to do as little work as possible, outsmart their manipulative boss, delay adult responsibility and not sleep with each other. They fail on all counts. Jammie Dodgers is a show that explores that time in your early twenties when, despite your best efforts, you start becoming an adult and making the choices that will determine your future.

Directed by Anna Nugent

Made with the support of the Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme through the Television License Fee.

Don’t B 2 Keen Mr. Matchmaker by Conrad JB

Ethan, a young Dublin gay man, disillusioned with his prospects of ever owning a house in the capital, sets off to deep rural Ireland in search of a Sugar Daddy. Written as a reaction to John B Keane’s ‘The Matchmaker’, Don’t B 2 Keen Mister Matchmaker explores the transactional feeling of modern day Grindr culture and how that can interact with rural isolation. Queer men’s hook-up apps can show you every man in Dublin who is willing to sleep with you, but if each of those men is still living in their parent’s gaff, what is one to do? Rural isolation is a real problem for countryside communities and LGBTQ+ people suffer heightened levels of loneliness when they feel unable to come out. Can we meet in the middle? Can we be our own Matchmakers?

The play was directed by Anna Nugent

Ethan was played by Robert Downes

Sean, Casper, Daniel, Padraig was played by Emmanuel Okoye

Sharon, Bride to Be, Sive was Maureen O’Connell

Caoimhe, Jackie was played by Biaina Ryan

Konstantin by Ultan Pringle

[powerpress]

Konstantin follows the entwined lives of lifelong partners Nina and Allie. Beginning when they’re 18 and setting out to explore the world and finishing when they’re in their late 80s and preparing to leave it, Konstantin is a story of two lives lived and loved side by side. The play jumps through the span of 60 years to explore the relationship and romantic partnership between Allie and Nina. We meet them at 18, arguing in an old decrepit lighthouse about what the future holds. We see them in their early thirties, realising that they’d like to make their lives together and they buy that old lighthouse. We see them at forty, deciding to adopt. Fifty raising two children who turn out to be handfuls. We see them at 60 when they experience a loss which shakes them to their core. We see them at 70, navigating a grief that has to come define them and then finally we see them at 80, failing to make sense of it all but accepting that their lives were worth it and their love was valid. And finally we see them at the very end of their lives, together, waiting for the old lighthouse light to shine.

Konstantin is an unashamedly queer story which sets out to tell a story radical in its simplicity: the love between two women told delicately over the course of their lives and how their simple act of loving one another is made radical because of its queerness.

Written and directed by Ultan Pringle

Derbhle Crotty as Allie

A new audio drama by Colette Cullen.

Two very different couples meet in the waiting room of a fertility clinic – Adam and Sera for their fifth IVF cycle, Jess and Jessica for their first. As they pass the time chit chatting there are some surprising revelations.

Cast:

Emma Dargan-Reid as Jessica