THREE WORLD PREMIERES ANNOUNCED AT THE GATE FOR 2021

As the Gate Truck hits the road this week on a major national tour with In Middletown, created and performed by Mikel Murfi, the Gate is thrilled to announce three additional projects that will take place over the coming months:

• The world premiere of ONCE BEFORE I GO by Irish playwright Phillip McMahon, directed by Selina Cartmell. This production will see the reopening of the theatre to live audiences for the first time since March 2020.
• A free immersive audio walk, SOMETHING IN YOU KNOWS THINGS, written and performed by IFTA award-winning writer and actor Clare Dunne.
• A radical audio and visual re-imagining of Maxim Gorky’s classic CHILDREN OF THE SUN by Gate Associate Artist Marc Atkinson Borrull and playwright Matthew Minnicino.

Artistic Director Selina Cartmell said: ‘This announcement  is a significant moment for the Gate as we launch three unique theatrical experiences. Each of these World Premieres is driven by a passion for promoting change and empathy, and collectively they interrogate how we love and better understand who we are, who we have been and who we could be. Presented across a range of platforms, both live and digitally, my hope is these works will engage, move and entertain in equal measure.

We commissioned these artists in lockdown, when we were all so far apart. It’s now a joy to slowly emerge from Covid with fresh creative energy, ensuring that the Gate remains relevant for a new generation of artists and audiences. Working with these talented artists over the past year has been a privilege and a vital life-line for the Gate company. Each project demonstrates the Gate’s ongoing commitment to find ways of supporting diverse and dynamic Irish and international talent. With two of the projects free to access worldwide, we continue our commitment to make our work as accessible as possible to communities everywhere.

Finally, I am  especially delighted to  work with the incredible Once Before I Go company, to finally get back into a rehearsal room and rediscover the magical and transformative experience of making live theatre.’

ONCE BEFORE I GO

https://www.gatetheatre.ie/productions/once-before-i-go/

Friday 1st October to Saturday 23rd October 2021
Opening night: Friday 1st October 2021
Previews: Friday 24th September – Thursday 30th September 2021
Tickets from €25

Once Before I Go is a Gate commission from Phillip McMahon, the co-creator of the iconic sensation RIOT!

This deeply moving portrait of three close queer friends over a period of 40 years in Dublin, Paris and London, offers an insightful look at living with humility, forgiveness and love. The story is told against the backdrop of Dublin’s burgeoning gay rights movement in the 1980s and 1990s and the contemporary LGBTQ+ community of today.

Political, joyous and heartbreaking, Once Before I Go honours the fabulous people we lost along the way, and celebrates those who fight on.

In an exciting new transformation, the Gate auditorium will be reconfigured to include a hybrid cabaret-style setting and will play as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival

Writer Phillip McMahon said: ‘I’m thrilled to be returning to live theatre with this play that feels both personal and political. Once Before I Go looks at LGBTQ+ activism, love and friendships, and while it celebrates how far our community has come, it asks questions about all that was lost on the march towards progress. The play is very dear to me and it’s an honour to be premiering it at The Gate Theatre under the direction of Selina Cartmell. I like to think that the fabulous ghosts of The Gate’s founders Micheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards would be tickled by this play happening in their theatre.’

Once Before I Go Company

Cast (in order of appearance):
Lynn: Aisling O’Sullivan
Jase: Sam Crerar
Daithí: Sean Campion
Young Lynn: Martha Breen
Young Daithí: Desmond Eastwood
Bernard: Matthew Malone

Directed by: Selina Cartmell
Set Design: Francis O’Connor
Costume Design: Katie Davenport
Lighting Design: Sinead McKenna
Sound Design: Alma Kelliher
Movement: Liz Roche
Associate Director: Darren Sinnott

 

SOMETHING IN YOU KNOWS THINGS

Available FREE from Friday, July 30th from your favourite podcast provider.

Something In You Knows Things is a brand-new audio walk from Clare Dunne, the IFTA Award-winning writer of Herself, commissioned by the Gate Studio.

Voiced by Dunne and her niece Sophie, this project is an immersive30-minute guided audio walk that encourages the listener to meditate on our environment, the intimate ties that bind us together, and the global challenges we now face. And to have a little dance while you do it.
With wry humour and a gentle mindfulness, it is a beautiful, unique exploration of what it means to be alive in a fragile world at a turning point, where the choices we make today determine if we will be good ancestors tomorrow.

Something in You Knows Things Company
Writer: Clare Dunne
Voices: Clare Dunne and Sophie Dunne
Music and Sound Designer: Tom Lane (Gate Associate Artist)

 

CHILDREN OF THE SUN

Available at www.gatetheatre.ie from Thursday July 22, 2021.

Maxim Gorky’s 1905 classic Children of the Sun has been radically reimagined by director Marc Atkinson Borrull and playwright Matthew Minnicino.

Set on the estate of the Protasov family during a time of social unrest, the family gather, with their close friends, to celebrate the birth of a new society, full of beauty and discovery. Outside their doors, however, a shooting in Moscow sparks workers’ riots and the surging violent revolution inches ever closer to their door. With clear echoes of our current political discourse and fractured society, this is a savagely funny and blistering look at class, contagion, capitalism and identity.

Developed remotely with an Irish and international cast as part of the Gate Creative Studio, this striking online presentation, available later this week on YouTube and via the Gate’s website, will provide a fascinating audio and visual insight into the evolution of this dynamic new theatrical work.

Children of The Sun Company

Cast (in order of appearance):
Pavel Protasov: Jefferson White
Melaniya Chepurnaya: Rebecca Naomi Jones
Boris Chepurnoy: Marty Rea
Liza Protasova: Leah Minto
Yegor: Alex J. Moreno
Fima: Zara Devlin
Misha: Clinton Liberty
Yelena Protasova: Judith Roddy
Mitri Vaghin: Breffni Holahan

Director: Marc Atkinson Borrull
Writer: Matthew Minnicino
Visual Designer: Kimie Nishikawa
Composer: Lester St. Louis
Casting: Maureen Hughes
Editing / Sound Designer: Tom Lane
Stage Manager / Assistant Director: Julia Appleby

 

MEDIA INFORMATION

Christine Monk | monk.christine@gmail.com | 087 675 5329