The Abbey Theatre Presents The Digital Premiere Of THIS BEAUTIFUL VIRTUAL VILLAGE

This August, the Abbey Theatre presents the digital premiere of Lisa Tierney-Keogh's This Beautiful Virtual Village - a witty, Zoom-age adaptation of her award-winning play This Beautiful Village (2019).

This Beautiful Virtual Village is an innovative adaptation which sees a lively residents' association meeting happen via Zoom. Viewed online, This Beautiful Virtual Village reflects the current realities of social distancing and lockdown living.

Having played to sold-out houses in September 2019, This Beautiful Village was heralded as "explosively funny" (Sunday Business Post) and "utterly clued in to the zeitgeist" (Irish Independent). Plans for a 2020 Abbey stage run and nationwide tour were cancelled due to the pandemic, but now audiences around the world can experience this exciting online adaptation for just €5. This Beautiful Virtual Village will be available for one month only, with its digital premiere at 7.30pm on 17th August.

Graham McLaren and Neil Murray, said: "One of the hardest decisions we've made this year was cancelling the encore run of Lisa Tierney Keogh's sell-out production This Beautiful Village. We'd planned a triumphant return to the Abbey stage, followed by a national tour but, sadly, the pandemic had other plans and we were devastated by the forced cancellations.

In the midst of this crisis we have all faced some of the greatest creative challenges of our careers. Whilst working to keep the Abbey open and to reimagine our programme, we spent our days on video calls. We asked ourselves 'what would This Beautiful Village look like during COVID-19?' and so the idea to adapt the show's eventful residents' association meeting for the Zoom age came to life.

The national theatre's role is to reflect the nation back to itself. We were delighted when Lisa Tierney-Keogh and David Horan accepted the challenge to transform their acclaimed work from the stage to an online platform, climbing a creative mountain and daringly setting this razor-sharp story in a frame we can all easily identify with."

Directed by David Horan, three of the show's original cast, Pom Boyd, Bethan Mary-James and Michael Ford-FitzGerald, are joined by new cast members Steve Blount, Amy Conroy and Luke Griffin.

Set over one virtual residents' association meeting, six people will confront their pride, prejudice and privilege. A wholly original Abbey Theatre production, This Beautiful Virtual Village is a piercing exposé of what it means to co-exist in Ireland today.

Tickets are on sale now from abbeytheatre.ie

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