WHO could resist a title such as Northside Misfits Community Drama Group? Together two years and working out of Ballynanty’s resource centre, this lot is minting new drama with Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board support, under theatre practitioner Karen Fitzgibbon.
‘taLK’ is one production emerging as a hit and on Thursday 16 at Belltable, 8pm, we see it staged in a professional venue. The story of a woman facing a serious diagnosis, over the shunting timeframe of a year, “everyone is embracing it, tickets are flying out the door”, says Fitzgibbon, who directs.
‘taLK’ is a co-write between the Misfits and herself, inspired by the sighting by one member, Stephanie Ryan, of a woman crying at bus stop outside a hospital. That moving picture is made flesh now in theatre.
A year ago ‘taLK’ made its premier at Northside Community (family resource centre) and at Milford Care Centre to rewarding response. Senator Mary Louise O’Donnell travelled from Dublin to address its themes and community of movers and shakers.
Now the play is revisited.
On merit, it is invited to Manchester Day Parade as part of #Limerick2020 bid for European Capital of Culture this Sunday June 19, to tweet live from this enormous event. Their invitation is through the prestigious unit Walk the Plank who, specialising in outdoor performance, visited to check out Limerick groups in March as part of the torturous bid process – finalising July 15 with the Capital confirmed then.
Storyline:
“The woman has heard bad news at the hospital and confides in a stranger while standing at the bus stop. She develops a friendship with him and meets him throughout the seasons. The action moves between the bus stop and the hospital where it’s a Groundhog Day scene. Her mother cannot accept the diagnosis”.
Northside Misfits’ ‘taLK’ is proving eloquent as drama. Box office at Belltable is online at venue manager www.limetreetheatre.ie
