Welcome to the House of Fun - Spring 2012 at Cork Opera House

Cork Opera House welcomes you to the ‘House of Fun’ this Spring season with a shiny new programme of events bursting with activities for the whole family!

With nearly 60 shows to boast of, the Spring programme is packed full of the best in music, opera, comedy, drama, dance and even speed dating! Cork Opera House has delivered their largest Spring brochure to date under the creative eyes of CEO Mary Hickson.

Ahead of the official season launch, Hickson had this to say:

This year our Spring programme is literally packed to the rafters!! It really has ‘something for everyone’ which is the main objective behind all of our seasons. From Samuel Beckett to Brendan Grace, Sesame Street to La Bohème, our hope is that anyone picking up this brochure will be excited by at least one event. So take time out – treat yourself, treat a loved one, the family, your niece or your Granddad – escape for a while, have some fun – sit back and let us entertain you!

Celebrating the best of local, national and international talent, the season begins by laying out the welcome mat for some of the finest theatrical talent around with Rough Magic’s Plaza Suite (opens 24 Jan), the international smash-hit show Man 1, Bank 0 (19 Feb), the critically acclaimed Verdant Production’s Dear Frankie (opens 7 Mar) and the beautifully poignant Translunar Paradise (24 May).

Enriching us with further theatre endeavours, Cork Opera House play host to a weekend long celebration of Samuel Beckett’s works with a series of events aptly titled Let’s Talk About Sam (opens 15 Mar) across a number of venues featuring the internationally acclaimed Gare St Lazare Players.

Moving from the dramatic to the hilarious, comedy is serious business in Cork Opera House this season! Jason Byrne, Neil Delamere, Dara O’Briain, Michael Winslow AKA Motor Mouth Jones from The Police Academy Film Series, Brendan Grace, Mario Rosenstock in Gift Grub, the inimitable D’unbelievables and PJ Gallagher will be taking the stage this Spring to entertain the masses!

This season also brings two spectacular touring opera productions from the famous Ellen Kent Opera Company, La Traviata (3 Apr) and La Bohème (4 & 5 Apr) while the more contemporary opera lovers among us will have a chance to experience a melodious tenors recital from The Three Tenors on Mother’s Day (18 Mar).

There’s a plethora of musical treats to avail of this season starting with the legendary Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (1 Feb), Alabama 3 (12 Feb), the masterful Gavin Friday (13 Feb), while we’ll also have the oeuvre of Ennio Morricone brought to melodious life through the talent of Spaghetti Western Orchestra (25 Feb). Camille O’Sullivan (24 Feb) returns to her hometown after a successful tour to New York and release of a new album. Then the Opera House will get an internal makeover to make way for a series of standing gigs starting with the Hip Hop Superstar Professor Green (19 Apr) before getting ready to rock out ukulele style with the West Cork Ukelele Orchestra and Kormac’s Big Band Double Bill (20 Apr), along with an entire evening of local Cork acts storming the stage for Cork Rocks The House (21 Apr)

For all the trad lovers amongst us we have an orchestral and traditional fusion with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the renowned Sharon Shannon (16 Apr) taking the stage, along with the nationally acclaimed Kilfenora Céilí Band (18 May) rousing the spirits of all our patrons, young and old.

For the kiddies, we’ll have everyone on Gleek patrol for The Glee Experience (11 Feb), and we also have the world renowned and loved Sesame Street (11 Apr) making some monster music!

The world of dance will once again be adorned with some of the most applauded contemporary dance groups when Coiscéim Dance Theatre Company bring us Touch Me (21 Feb) and National Dance Theatre Company of Wales (opens 19 Mar) will athletically and beautifully assault the Opera House stage. There will also be a dazzling combination of passion and hatred, comedy and high tragedy with Ballet Ireland’s prestigious interpretation of Romeo and Juliet (30 Apr).

This of course is not all that’s on offer - we also have some fine musical exploits along with hilarious comedies and dramatic deeds taking to the Half Moon stage. This season sees some beautiful music from The Henry Girls (26 Feb) and a return from our musician in residence Kate Ellis for Part 2 (7 Apr) of her musical explorations. The Irish Canon (Abridged) (opens 10 Apr) makes a welcome side-splitting return to the Half Moon Theatre cramming 10 plays, 70 characters and 3 actors all into just one hour, while the CIT School of Music Musical Society brings us on a journey of humanity and hilarity all through the power of song and dramatic script with A New Brain (opens 29 Feb).

Just as we said, the forthcoming Spring season has many delicious delights to engage your granny or your little brother. So don’t delay – get your tickets now, take your pick - there's something for everyone in the ultimate House of Fun!