Natalie O'Donoghue - Page 45

Tom Mayhew is a professional comedian. Well, he was. Over the last 18 months, he has sold out West End venues and signed on; he then stopped signing on to perform his own Radio 4 stand-up series. It's been both the most and least successful period of his career.

400 milliliters. That's how much liquid was drained from Michael's left testicle when he was a teenager. That's more than a can of coke. He should have told someone sooner, but who could he turn to? His dad died ten years ago, and besides, school is full of rumours about what the giant bulge in his trousers actually is. Who wants to stop that? The true story of a Belfast boy growing up with no father to guide him through and a giant ball.

The Victorian era’s toy theater movement collides with digital theater in this critically acclaimed, epic, table-top, sci-fi adventure. An astronaut crew crash lands on an unfamiliar planet in the distant future and are enslaved by a society where grapes have evolved into speaking creatures with human-like intelligence. “It’s a madhouse!”

The climate apocalypse has hit. Dublin's completely underwater. Best friends Bláthnaid and Debs are the sole survivors, living on the top floor of Liberty Hall. With only seagulls for company, they spend their days sheltering from the storms and reminiscing over the last days of Dublin. Debs looks to the future, but Bláthnaid is tormented by guilt. Why were they blind to the wave that was coming? And can they salvage a future from the wreckage? Afloat explores loss, sisterhood, and climate anxiety. From the makers of Fringe First winner, Mustard

Meet Davy. The things he sees. His streets. His mates. His girl and… The Boys. ‘It is what it is. It’s hard to say what it is. It’s just, you know. What it is.’ East Belfast Boy goes digital. Filmed throughout East Belfast in the summer of 2020 and directed by Emma Jordan, East Belfast Boy features a stunning physical performance by dancer Ryan O’Neill, with voiceover by actor Terrence Keeley and a thrilling updated soundtrack by Phil Kieran.

Rooted in the experience of the last year as a woman of colour, this intimate digital artwork brings spoken word, poetry, movement and soundscape artforms together to explore the meaning of female resilience in Scotland today. Thirteen Fragments is an artistic response to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Post Covid-19 Futures Commission addressing how Scotland can emerge from the pandemic as a more equitable society. A National Theatre of Scotland and Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) co-production, commissioned as part of the RSE’s Post-Covid-19 Futures Commission.

‘My name is mandla. It means power. I gave it to myself’ – mandla rae has a selective memory and they are scrambling to piece together their life. Through the exploration of mandla’s fragmented asylum and migration memories, as british as a watermelon asks questions about belonging, trauma and forgiveness. Told through an unflinching autofiction narrative weaving poetry and storytelling set within a chaotically colourful, sensory performance space and imagined entirely for the camera with film maker Graham Clayton-Chance; join mandla as they rise from the dead and reclaim their misplaced power.

“I wish Justine would leave me alone, so I could imagine being with her.” Anna has the perfect girlfriend, job and family- in her head. If you can dream it, why do you need to achieve it? When Justine crashes into Anna’s life and her fantasies, she has to make an unsettling choice. In this darkly comic, queer audio play, you share Anna’s headphones to plummet into the power and pain of imagination.

A hell of a lot can happen in the time you await the results of a pregnancy test. This is the story of a woman staring down the barrel of motherhood, torn between her own ambivalence... and an uncontrollable urge to push. Award-winning Popelei burst out of isolation and onto your screens with their darkly comic theatre production, reimagined for film. Blistering honesty, exhilarating choreography, and one extremely knocked-up performer.

A referential piece of immersive digital theatre set in a flat that's been possessed – Poltergeist style – by the ghost of pop-cultural masculinities. The Gash gals find themselves stuck, forced to encounter chit-chatting desk lamps, harmonising closet drawers, a TV that plays nothing but romcoms, a werewolf singing classic rock and way too many Rick and Morty references (one). In this macho world, they grapple with romance, bisexuality, their fears of men and how they'll connect with other people once they finally escape.

Melissa Center is... Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal. No really – she is! What starts out as her Jewish mom's pesky fantasy (and mild-to-moderate... OK, major obsession) turns into a full-on mission as Melissa, single, struggling and *cough* *cough* approaching 40, searches for love (and Jake Gyllenhaal). There will be Jewish moms (or just the one). There will be bad dates. There will be music. There will be stalking. There will be laughter... and some tears. There will be a wedding. There will be Jake. (And, in some way shape or form, Melissa Center will do them all).

A comedy about four working-class friends, Nick, Dan, Michelle and Lucy. Nick is not a fan of Christmas due to family issues but his partner Lucy is leaving the country shortly, so he is trying to make it a good night for her sake. They have a movie night in during a snowstorm but are stuck watching Freeview so they struggle to find something Christmassy to watch. They get into the holiday spirit by talking about past Christmases, favourite films and presents. They have a good vent about relationships and the fear of life after uni.

The fifth play in our Sound Stage season, Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil is freely adapted from the books of Ron Ferguson – Coal, Cowdenbeath and Football dreams of glory come together in a story about a father a daughter and what it means to succeed.

Take a jaunt down to the riverbank and join the adventure, as Mole, Rat and Badger try to instil just a little common sense and protect the impulsive Mr. Toad from harming himself in his impulsive antics and reckless motoring!

The Fourth of our Sound Stage series, The Mother Load. Three first-time mothers meet at an ante natal class. Together they must confront their expectations of pregnancy in this funny and moving play about unlikely friendship and the messy realities of parenthood.

Directed by Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director, Elizabeth Newman, Adventures with the Painted People is a compelling love story, exploring the value of history and the power of writing. Lucius is a cultured Roman officer, captured by the Picts and about to be sacrificed. Eithne is a wise Pictish woman, who wants to record her people's history in writing, a skill they do not yet have. She makes a deal - she will rescue Lucius, in exchange for him teaching her to write. So, they must flee - not by road, the Romans have not built those yet, but down river...

Returning from battle, Macbeth hears a prophesy emboldening him to murder and betray. Compelled by his equally ruthless wife, Macbeth ignores his creeping sense of guilt and hopelessness and attempts to hasten the hand of fate, unwittingly ushering in the downfall of them both.

Download the app, plug in your headphones, and lose yourself in this poetic storytelling experience, exploring the myth of Scotland's collective amnesia of slavery and racialised wealth, of empire and identity.

From the producer and writer behind smash-hit Islander The Musical comes Distance Remaining - a collection of three soaring theatrical stories made for the screen starring Karen Dubar, Reuben Joseph and Dolina MacLennan.

A new comedy that takes Year of the Rona and replaces it with Year of the Jan. It’s a show for anyone who wanted to run down the street screaming NO every time we had another zoom call to make; for those who saw the families on Gogglebox more than their own; and for all us who want to put that last year behind them and get back in the theatre, to return to that sense of being together as a community. A hilarious show guaranteed to make us feel closer to each other than we have all of last year.