THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER Returns To The Abbey This Winter

Rehearsals began this morning for The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder which runs on the Peacock stage from 10 - 31 December. This classic play is a gift-wrapped seasonal gem, guaranteed to delight and surprise.

The Abbey's critically acclaimed production of The Long Christmas Dinner returns in 2022 - after a shortened run due to Covid in 2021 - having picked up 5 Irish Times Theatre Award nominations.

In this meditation on togetherness and separation, birth, death, and renewal, we visit successive generations of the Bayard family at their Christmas dinner table spanning a period of 90 years. This heart-warming family drama happens over a seamless 50 minutes. The Long Christmas Dinner gives us a moment to pause and reflect on our own families, what we hold dear, those we have lost, and what Christmas means for each of us.

Raymond Keane and Sarah Jane Scaife, Directors of The Long Christmas Dinner, said: "Working on this short play was a revelation. At each moment, the ordinary has achieved the status of the extraordinary."

"In The Long Christmas Dinner, the ghosts and story tellers of the past are still at the Christmas table.
It is something that we live through every time we have a special event and somebody's missing," Caitríona McLaughlin, Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre.

There will also be a relaxed performance of this production. This means there will be a relaxed approach to noise during the show; house lights are kept on, rather than turned off; sound and light effects are disclosed in advance; - all supports designed to make a more inclusive theatre experience and help people with autism, intellectual, neurological and/or sensory differences enjoy the show. Audience members are also free to move about or leave the auditorium as they need.

Some of Ireland's best-loved talents reunite to present this joyous Christmas celebration - the cast includes Rachael Dowling, Máire Ní Ghráinne, Bryan Burroughs, Emmet Byrne, Rachel O'Byrne, Will O'Connell, Liam Bixby, Fionnuala Gygax and Fiona Lucia McGarry with new additions in Benjamin Reilly and Una Ní Bhríain.

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