WITNESS: A Smashing Times Season of Plays, Performance and Readings
By: Hugh C Nov. 05, 2013
05-09 November 8.15pm
Matinees - 8 November, 11am
Smashing Times Theatre Company present three plays and a showcase reading of new work about rising up out of difficult situations and making a new beginning.
By Paul Kennedy and Mary Moynihan
5 & 6 November 2013, 8.15pm (Free; tickets required - available by phone or in person at our box office)
Schools Performance: A Day Out from Testimonies, Friday 8 November, 11am (Free; tickets required - contact box office for more details)
Dramatic monologues adapted from the experiences of people who have lost loved ones to suicide and from the experiences of people who have been through a mental health crisis and survived. Testimonies is presented as part of Acting for the Future, a project using theatre to promote positive mental health and run in partnership with the Samaritans and Irish Association of Suicidology and supported by ESB Electric Aid Ireland.
Installation of 'Living Theatre' performances
Created by Mary Moynihan
Written by Paul Kennedy
7 November 2013, 8.15pm (€14/€12)
An installation of 'living theatre' performances exploring themes of conflict and trauma. Using the body as a site of performance, memory and emotion and centering on experiences of conflict in Northern Ireland, Thou Shalt Not Kill imagines the future through a remembrance of things past. Uprising
Scripted by Tara McKevitt
Devised by Smashing Times
8 & 9 November 2013, 8.15pm (€14/€12)
A fusion of text, physical movement and dance, Uprising explores memories and experiences of conflict and pathways to peace Showcase Reading of New Work
Matinee, 9 November, 2pm (€5)
Reading of new work in progress from playwrights including Sinead O'Loughlin, Gerard Humphreys and Mary Moynihan. All performances followed by post-show discussions with the artists and invited guest speakers. Company Information Smashing Times Theatre Company - Theatre for Change
Smashing Times Theatre Company is a professional theatre company involved in performance, training and participation. The work of the company is underpinned by a rights-based approach and a commitment to artistic excellence and social engagement.
The company was established in 1991by a group of women actors, who met at the Focus Theatre, Dublin. The company has two high-profile patrons - Brian Friel and Tim Pat Coogan. Smashing Times Theatre Company is supported by Dublin City Council Arts Office.
Smashing Times Theatre Company is now established as a leading professional arts organisation that promotes social justice and equality through high quality artistic processes.
The work takes inspiration from practitioners including Constantine Stanislavski (searching for a sense of truth and depth), Yoshi Oida (creating the life of a human spirit on stage and the use of fundamental energies), Viola Spolin (the physical, intuitive, invisible) and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.
Smashing Times is committed to 'Theatre for Change', using theatre as a form of knowledge and as a means of transforming society, to promote social justice, human rights and equality for all. The company achieves its aims through implementing specific projects, which consist of professional theatre performances and post-show discussions, participative theatre and storytelling workshops, creative symposiums and professional outreach.
The company uses innovative arts based projects to entertain, to challenge, to celebrate and to promote issues such as gender equality, cultural diversity, positive mental health and suicide prevention and peace building and reconciliation. The company aims through its work to make the world a better place, to use drama and theatre to empower people, to promote a inclusive and equitable society and to speak out against poverty and social exclusion.
"The plays are true theatre...extraordinary, Smashing Times Theatre Company has a deserved reputation for exploring social issues with sensitivity and in depth... Smashing Times must continue with it"
Irish Times
"Fascinating, executed by the innovative and dynamic Smashing Times Theatre."
Sunday Independent
"The three actors have the gift of immediacy and authenticity and pull the audience in...credible and compelling...outstanding performances...crafted, nuanced, searing...this play should find an engaged and passionate audience for its sensitive storytelling...companies like Smashing Times ... consistently produce work that is self-consciously political, work that seeks to provoke and engage debate about the way we organise society and our lives.' Village Magazine
Testimonies
By Paul Kennedy and Mary Moynihan
Directed by Bairbre Ni Chaoimh, Ena May and Mary Moynihan
Performed by Annette Flynn, Adam Traynor, Margaret Toomey and Gillian Hackett
By Paul Kennedy
Directed by Bairbre Ni Chaoimh
Performed by Adam Traynor Thou Shalt Not Kill
Installation of 'Living Theatre' performances
Created by Mary Moynihan
Written by Paul Kennedy
Directed by Mary Moynihan and Bairbre Ni Chaoimh
Performed by Fiona Bawn-Thompson, Cathy White and Adam Traynor Uprising
Scripted by Tara McKevitt
Devised by Smashing Times
Directed by Mary Moynihan
Performed by Adam Traynor, Paul Nolan, Mark Flynn, Margaret Toomey and Evelyn Shaw Showcase Reading of New Work
Reading of new work in progress from playwrights including Sinead O'Loughlin, Gerard Humphreys and Mary Moynihan.
Comments
Join Team BroadwayWorld
Are you an avid theatergoer? We're looking for people like you to share your thoughts and insights with our readers. Team BroadwayWorld members get access to shows to review, conduct interviews with artists, and the opportunity to meet and network with fellow theatre lovers and arts workers.
Videos