Ireland's Fishamble Returns to 59E59 Theaters with CHAROLAIS Tonight

59E59 Theaters welcomes the US premiere of CHAROLAIS, written and performed by Noni Stapleton and directed by Bairbre Ní Chaoimh. Produced by Fishable: The New Play Company, CHAROLAIS began performances on Tuesday, August 29 for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 24. Press Opening is tonight, August 31 at 7:30 PM.

A passionate love triangle ensues when a rural Irish woman and a sexy French singing Charolais heifer vie for a farmer's attentions. Called "a fast paced, witty, and intensely emotional tale filled with laughter, loss and despair" by the Irish Times, CHAROLAIS is a multi award-winning (and Susan Smith Blackburn nominated) play about the rivalry between a woman and a cow.

The design team includes Miriam Duffy (costume design) and Jack Cawley (sound design). The dramaturg is Gavin Kostick. The production stage manager is Becca Pickett.

The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM and 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets are $25 ($20 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Noni Stapleton (playwright/performer) is an Irish actress, voice over artist and playwright. She graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2002, beginning her long and varied theater career in What the Dead Want (directed by Jimmy Fay) at Project Arts Centre, Dublin. She has continued to work in theater, TV and film as an actress and writer and has also performed in many Irish language (Gaelic) productions.

Noni was a series regular on the Showtime USA series Penny Dreadful, playing Gladys Murray wife to lead Timothy Dalton on the hit show, which was created and written by three time Oscar nominee John Logan (Skyfall, The Aviator, Gladiator) and executive produced by Sam Mendes. She also has a recurring role of high priestess on the History Channel's series Vikings and recently starred in Ireland's long running soap opera Fair City as counsellor Rosaleen Conway.

As a playwright, Noni's work has brought her to the attention of The Royal Court in London where she was selected to participate in an invited writers group earlier this year. Her play Charolais originated in 2014 as a Show In A Bag production in association with Fishamble: The New Play Company, Dublin Fringe Festival and the Irish Theatre Institute. Charolais has won The Stewart Parker Award, The Little Gem Award (Dublin Fringe Festival) and Best Monologue Bouquet (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). It was shortlisted by The Writers Guild of Ireland for best theater script 2014 and selected as a finalist for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2015-2016. Charolais won a PPI bronze for Best Drama in Irish Radio Broadcasting and was nominated for the Prix Europa. Noni also won a Best Actress Award for her performance in the radio play at The New York Festivals International Radio Program Awards. Charolais is published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama. To date Charolais has played over 150 shows in more than 50 venues all over Ireland and has toured to theatres and festivals in Paris, Finland, Edinburgh Wales and Geneva.

Noni co-founded Skipalong Theatre Company for which she co-wrote One for Sorrow and Two for a Girl. She played multiple roles in both productions which were directed by Maureen White. Two for a Girl was nominated for the Jayne Snow Award for "Innovation and Bravery in Theatre" at the Dublin Fringe Festival and subsequently published in 'Freshly Brewed,' an anthology of new Irish writing. Noni is a company member of AboutFACE, an Irish American theater company producing American writing internationally and she is a participant of Irish Theatre Institute's Six in the Attic Artists Supports Programme 2017/18.

Theater highlights include Lizzy Lavelle and the Vanishing of Emlyclough (Jo Mangan), The Laramie Project (Paul Brennan), Massacre @ Paris (Jimmy Fay), Little Victories (Veronica Coburn), Orson Welles A Christmas Carol (AboutFACE), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Piedescalso Productions), Walking Away (Amalgamotion - Best Production, Limerick Fringe), Footnotes Tap Show (Choreographer Diane Richardson), The Merry Wives of Windsor (AC Productions), An Triail (Bairbre Ni Chaoimh) and Antigone (Splodar).

TV and film credits include Penny Dreadful (Showtime USA), Vikings (History Channel), Ripper Street (BBC), Quirke (BBC), Inspector Jury (Octogan),The Clinic (RTE), The Tudors (TV3), Fair City (RTE), Siol (TG4), Marion agus an Banphrionsa (Best Short, Cork Film Festival), Henry and Sunny, and On Our Way.

Bairbre Ní Chaoimh (director) is an award winning theater maker with a significant track record as an actor, director and writer. She has worked nationally and internationally with all the major Irish theater companies and on a range of site-specific immersive shows with The Curious Ensemble, ANU, Fishamble, Women In Space and Guerilla Theatre Company. She directed productions for The Gate, Calypso, Storytellers, Lane Productions, Red Kettle, Bewleys and Bigger Picture Projects that toured to Europe (England, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Kosovo and Macedonia), the US (New York and Washington), Canada (Toronto Festival) and Australia (Melbourne Festival). She received an Irish Times award and a MAMA for her directorial work with Calypso and was an Associate Artist at The Abbey Theatre. Directing credits include Act without Words II, Play and Come and Go for the Beckett Festival in Dublin's Gate Theatre, London's Barbican and The Lincoln Center, New York; Master Harold... and the Boys, Operation Easter and The Wonderful World Of Dissocia (Calypso); the multi-award-winning Catalpa (Ireland, Scotland, USA, Canada, Australia); and When The Wall Came Down for Storytellers (Dublin and Berlin).

Recent directing credits include Charolais, (winner of the Stewart Parker and Little Gem awards); My Aunt Bee for Big Guerilla Productions (national tour), The Quiet Land (Bewleys, Irish tour and Oran Mór, Glasgow), If You Could Read My Mind and Say Our Names (Smashing Times at the Beckett Theatre), Fallen (promenade production for Dublin Writers' Centre), The Mysterious History of Things (The Viking), Meeting Ghosts in College Park (immersive production with The Curious Ensemble in Trinity College Museum Building; winner, Trinity College Performing Arts Award), Your Beautiful Life (TEEU); As Time Goes By (The Viking), and The Seagull (Bottom Dog Theatre Co).

Upcoming productions include directing two short plays by Tennessee Williams, This Property Is Condemned and Talk to Me Like the Rain...And Let Me Listen, for Bewleys Theatre.

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