Fishamble: The New Play Company to Bring LITTLE THING, BIG THING to 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters will welcome the return of Fishamble: The New Play Company (Dublin, Ireland) with the US premiere of LITTLE THING, BIG THING written by Donal O'Kelly and directed by Jim Culleton. Part of Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival, LITTLE THING, BIG THING begins performances on Wednesday, September 2 for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 27. Press opening is Tuesday, September 8 at 7:15 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

In Nigeria, a frightened child puts an old roll of film into the hands of Dublin-bound teacher Sister Martha. In Dublin, ex-con Larry, with a wounded backside, has to get out of the city to rob a convent. Meanwhile, Scarab Oil plans to unleash its new clean fuel of the future. And the film roll Martha carries attracts the urgent interest of some very powerful and ambitious people.

After the smash success of The Cambria at the Irish Arts Center, Sorcha Fox and Donal O'Kelly return to New York to play Martha and Larry, characters who take a high octane jump into the brutal world of international energy skullduggery and awaken passions they thought were long behind them.

This darkly comic thriller produced by Fishamble: The New Play Company (Sebastian Barry's The Pride of Parnell Street and I Can See Clearly Now at 59E59) and directed by Jim Culleton (The Pride of Parnell Street; Pat Kinevane's Forgotten) comes direct from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after its critically acclaimed run in Ireland.

The design team includes John Comiskey (set and lighting design); Carl Kennedy (sound design); and Maria Tapper (costume design).

Donal O'Kelly (playwright/performer) is a writer, actor and theatre director. His plays include The Dogs (Rough Magic); Hughie On The Wires, Trickledown Town, The Business Of Blood (with Kenny Glenaan), Farawayan and Operation Easter (all Calypso); Mamie Sighs, Judas Of The Gallarus, Asylum! Asylum! (all Peacock); Vive La; The Cambria (Irish Arts Center); and the music-theatre pieces The Hand, Running Beast, The Adventures of the Wet Señor and Jimmy Gralton's Dancehall (all Benbo). As an actor, was Joxer in Juno And The Paycock, Jimmy Jack in Translations and Seán O'Casey in Colm Toibin's Beauty in a Broken Place at the Abbey Theatre. He performed multiple roles in Mary Raftery's No Escape, a documentary theatre-piece based on the Ryan Report into Child Abuse in Religious Institutions (Peacock 2010). He played Lucky in the world-famous Gate Theatre production of Waiting For Godot in Toronto. He has three times been awarded an Irish Arts Council literature bursary, and in 1999 the Irish American Cultural Institute Butler Literary Award. In 2009, he received the Black and Green Award in New York by the Irish Echo and the Amsterdam News for his work against racism. In 2011, he was Theatre Artist-in-residence in the Glens Centre Manorhamilton. He was elected a member of the Irish arts academy Aosdána (Literature discipline) from 2007 - 2010, and is an associate director of the peace and justice organization Afri.

Jim Culleton (director) is artistic director of Fishamble: The New Play Company for which he has directed award-winning productions that have toured throughout Ireland, UK, US, Canada, Australia and 12 European countries. These include Silent by Pat Kinevane, The Pride of Parnell Street by Sebastian Barry, Noah and the Tower Flower by Sean P Maguire, Forgotten by Pat Kinevane and Turning Point, which have previously toured to the US in association with the Irish Arts Center, 59E59 Theaters, 1st Irish, Drilling Company, Odyssey Theater LA, Kennedy Center/VSA and Georganne Aldrich Heller. Jim has also directed for the Abbey, most recently Down off his Stilts (Dublin, Sligo, Boston), Bookworms by Bernard Farrell and Shush by Elaine Murphy, as well as for 7:84 (Scotland), Project Arts Centre, Amharclann de hÍde, Amnesty International, Tinderbox, The Passion Machine, The Ark, Second Age, RTÉ Radio, the Belgrade, TNL Canada, Scotland's Ensemble @ Dundee Rep, Draíocht, Barnstorm, Roundabout, TCD School of Drama, Gúna Nua, RTE lyric fm, Frontline Defenders, Irish Council for Bioethics, Origin (New York), Woodpecker Productions/Gaiety and Vessel/ATF/Sydney Festival. He is Adjunct Lecturer at TCD, and has taught for Notre Dame, NYU, the Lir, NUIM/GSA, and UCD. ###

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