This month, we go on a very special tour (full list of dates directly below). Twenty five years on from the first ever Co-Motion tour of Frank Pig Says Hello, the original team of author Pat McCabe and director Joe O’Byrne (as well as original producer Declan Gorman and PR Director Kate Bowe) reunite for a major 20 venue tour of Ireland. We kick off with a celebratory launch over four nights at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre (24-27 Sept), then on October 2nd we go to Pat’s hometown of Clones to recreate the legendary opening night of the 1993 tour – and from there North, South, East and West all over the country. A longer press release follows further down, but first – a chronological list of dates and direct booking links to each venue.
Please note: the run at Gaiety Theatre, Dublin (24-27 Sept) is now concluded.
Clones – The Courthouse, Tues 2nd Oct – to book, phone Harry on 086 3542895
Linenhall: Castlebar Wed 3rd Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2NkK8ZE
glór: Ennis Thurs 4th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2wNlwhQ
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre: Fri 5th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2wOFEjB
Solstice: Navan Sat 6th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2NNRwK2
The Dock: Carrick-on-Shannon Wed 10th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2NiVqhb
Riverbank Arts Centre: Newbridge Thurs 11th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2QaRVIg
Watergate: Kilkenny Fri 12th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2MS4FoR
Source, Thurles Sat 13th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2NQuBOo
Roscommon Arts Centre, Tues 23rd Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2QbkWUe
Garter Lane: Waterford, Wed 24th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2NTFYVK
Visual: Carlow, Thurs 25th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2M65aGN
Market Place, Armagh, Fri 26th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2NPqFgx
Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise Tues 30th Oct – Booking: https://bit.ly/2oNb9qU
St Johns, Listowel: Thurs 1st Nov – Booking: Tel 068 22566
Town Hall Theatre, Galway: Fri 2nd Nov – Booking: https://bit.ly/2oIBS7Y
An Grianán, Letterkenny Wed 7th Nov: – Booking: https://bit.ly/2wMaeeA
Siamsa Tire, Tralee Thurs 8th Nov: – Booking: https://bit.ly/2oJ0ywS
An Tain Arts Centre, Dundalk: Fri 9th Nov – Booking: https://bit.ly/2Cno2Bm
PRESS RELEASE
Co-Motion Media
presents
FRANK PIG SAYS HELLO
by Pat McCabe
Directed by Joe O’Byrne
Performed by Darragh Byrne and John Ruddy
with Set Design by Robert Ballagh and
Lighting Design by Conleth White
Twenty-five years after its first groundbreaking tour, Pat McCabe’s FRANK PIG SAYS HELLO returns this Autumn to twenty theatres across Ireland, in a new production that brilliantly captures the legendary original.
Desperately funny and yet deeply tragic, FRANK PIG SAYS HELLO is one of the great classics of modern Irish theatre. It tells the story of Francie Brady growing up in a small Irish town in the 1960s and his descent towards a brutal act that shocks his community. Described as “one of the saddest and funniest tales I have seen”The Irish Times; “a masterpiece” The Evening Herald and “an extraordinary piece of theatre” The Sunday Independent, the original production coincided with McCabe’s Booker-winning novel of the same story entitled “The Butcher Boy”. The play distils Francie’s infamous narrative into a riveting evening of pure, concentrated theatre.
Featuring mesmerising performances by two actors, Darragh Byrne and John Ruddy, Frank Pig is regarded as one of the most vivid, hilarious and heartbreaking evocations ever seen on a stage of an Irish childhood and adolescence gone wrong. From the opening live trumpet notes over an image of a happy, comical boy acting the piglet, to the breathtaking depiction of a dark deed, this is theatre at its most entertaining and gripping best.
Pat McCabe and Joe O’Byrne collaborated on the original Frank Pig Says Hello production for the 1992 Dublin Theatre Festival where it won Best Production, before embarking on a world tour that began in Clones, Co. Monaghan and concluded in New York. Since then the two have produced together Loco County Lonesome, The Dead School, and The Revenant. Set design is by leading Irish artist Robert Ballagh. The show was recently recreated for the 2017 Dublin Theatre Festival winning high praise for exceptional young actor Darragh Byrne and the multi-talented actor, trumpet player and cartoonist John Ruddy, known for his Youtube video animations which have had millions of hits worldwide.
The play suited for 12s upwards.
The tour of Frank Pig Says Hello is grant-aided by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Kindly sponsored by Patrick Goodwin & Co., Solicitors, Drogheda
Darragh Byrne (foreground) as Francie and John D. Ruddy as Older Francie in FRANK PIG SAYS HELLO