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FISHAMBLE: THE NEW PLAY COMPANY PRESENTS
ON BLUEBERRY HILL WRITTEN BY SEBASTIAN BARRY DIRECTED BY JIM CULLETON
‘Now we’ve lived together in contentment, more or less, for nigh on twenty year. Like turtle doves. – In prison, I mean, for fuck’s sake, the chances of that.’ Following a run in London’s West End with Trafalgar Theatre Productions in 2020, cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, Olivier Award-winning Fishamble, and current Laureate of Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, reunite for a series of digital presentations of On Blueberry Hill in 2021. In Barry’s beautiful style, On Blueberry Hill features best of friends and worst of enemies Christy (Niall Buggy) and PJ (David Ganly), who are destined to share their lives for twenty years. As the two men reflect on the hope and torment of life outside – they slowly uncover the events that have led them to their world with explosive, bittersweet consequences. On Blueberry Hill was developed and produced in 2017 and 2019 with the support of Arts Council Ireland, and has toured internationally to the CCI in Paris and 59E59 Theaters as part of 1st Irish in New York, with the support of Culture Ireland. www.fishamble.com #OnBlueberryHill #Fishamble
Created By
‘one of the most powerful theatrical experiences
Written by Sebastian Barry Directed by Jim Culleton Produced by Eva Scanlan Set & Costume Design Sabine Dargent Lighting Design Mark Galione Sound Design Denis Clohessy Dramaturgy Gavin Kostick Stage Manager Steph Ryan Production Manager Marie Tierney Filmed & Edited by Media Coop
since that last stage-closing contagion 412 years ago’ Mark Lawson, Standpoint Magazine 'The Dublin-based Fishamble company is only rarely in New York, and when they are, you’ve got to go. On whatever hill they’re on, you'll find a thrill.'
★★★★ Time Out New York
‘It’s hard to find a word that captures it adequately. ‘Superb’ will have to do.’
★★★★ Irish Times
Cast Niall Buggy David Ganly
Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes Age Restrictions: 14+, contains descriptions of violence to others, suicide, strong language, and homophobia.
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Biographies Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels and plays have won, among other awards, the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Costa Book of the Year award, the Irish Book Awards Best Novel, the Independent Booksellers Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He also had two consecutive novels, A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize. He lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children. Sebastian Barry is the 2018-2021 Irish Fiction Laureate.
David Ganly, a native of Dublin, trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College. Theatre includes: Girl from the North Country, Shakespeare in Love (Noël Coward); On Blueberry Hill (Fishamble); The Velveteen Rabbit (Unicorn); Once, Grease, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz (Olympia, Dublin); The Lonesome West (Tron, Glasgow); The Plough and the Stars (Abbey, Dublin/Irish Tour/US Tour); Shadow of a Gunman (Abbey, Dublin/Lyric, Belfast); The Threepenny Opera, The Weir (Gate, Dublin); King Lear (Theatre Royal, Bath); Drum Belly, Uncle Vanya, The Cavalcaders, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Abbey, Dublin); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Macbeth (Sheffield); Of Mice and Men (Watermill, Newbury); The Wizard of Oz (Palladium); Beauty Queen of Leenane – OFFIE nomination for Best Actor (Young Vic); Chicago (Cambridge Theatre); The Wizard of Oz (WYP); The Field, John Bull’s Other Island, The Cavalcaders (Tricycle); Bedtime Story/The End of the Beginning (Young Vic/Union); Translations (NT); Hamlet, The Weir, Waiting for Godot (Northampton); Americans, The Quare Fellow (Tricycle/UK Tour); The Full Monty (Prince of Wales); The Lonesome West (Druid Theatre/Royal Court/Sydney Festival/Lyceum, NY); Russian Tales, The Cavalcaders (Meridian Theatre Company); The Talented Mr Ripley (Watford); Amphibians (YMCA, Wexford); Dancing at Lughnasa (Salisbury Playhouse); Shoot the Crow, Summerhouse (Druid Theatre); The Merchant of Venice (Lyric, Belfast); The Risen People, The Snow Queen (Gaiety, Dublin); The Plough and the Stars (Second Age); Sexual Perversity in Chicago (TCD); Extremities (Andrew’s Lane); Carousel (Tivoli); Lunch with me Bloom (Dublin Castle); F! (Dublin Festival/Belfast Festival). Film includes: Sunset Song; Body of Lies; Hippie Hippie Shake; Space Truckers. Television includes: Casualty; Citizen Charlie; Dorothy Mills; Widow’s Peak; Upwardly Mobile; Doctors.
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Niall Buggy is one of the leading Irish actors of his generation who has worked extensively on the stage and screen in Ireland, the UK and the US. Some of his better known roles include: the title role in Brian Friel’s Uncle Vanya, for which he won Best Actor at The Irish Times Theatre Awards and for his role as Casimir in Aristocrats for which he won the Time Out Award, Obie Award in New York, Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award. He also received the Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance in Dead Funny. His performance in Juno and the Paycock won him Best Actor in the TMA Awards. Most recent theatre includes: Furniture by Sonya Kelly (Druid Theatre), You Never Can Tell (The Abbey Theatre), St. Joan (Donmar Theatre, London), The Importance of Being Earnest (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Translations (Sheffield Crucible), The Hanging Gardens (Abbey Theatre) and A Whistle in the Dark with the Druid/Murphy season. His later work also includes The Invisible (Bush Theatre), Plough and the Stars (Lyric, London and The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin), Translations (Broadway), Penelope (St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn). Film appearances include: The Duel by Chekhov, Mr. Turner/Mike Leigh, Mamma Mia, Casanova, The Butcher Boy, Alien 3 and The Playboys. Television credits include: My Mother and Other Strangers/BBC, Jack Taylor 3/Taylor Made Films, Inspector Lewis, Dalziel and Pascoe, Father Ted, The Bill and The Professionals.
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Jim Culleton is the artistic director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for which he has directed productions on tour throughout Ireland, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. His productions for Fishamble have won many Irish and international awards, including Olivier, The Stage, Scotsman Fringe First, and Irish Times Best Director awards. Jim has also directed for Audible, the Abbey, the Gaiety, the Belgrade, 7:84 Scotland, Project, Amharclann de hÍde, Tinderbox, The Passion Machine, the Ark, Second Age, Dundee Rep, Draíocht, CoisCéim/Crash Ensemble/GIAF, RTÉ Radio 1, Frontline Defenders, Amnesty International, Little Museum of Dublin, Fighting Words, RTÉ lyric fm, Soho Theatre, Scripts Festival, Baptiste Programme, Vessel and APA (Australia), TNL (Canada), Solas Nua and Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Odyssey (LA), Origin, Irish Arts Center and 59E59 (Off-Broadway), as well as for Trafalgar Theatre Productions on the West End, and IAC/Symphony Space on Broadway. Jim has taught for NYU, NUI, GSA, Uversity, the Lir, Villanova, Notre Dame, UM, UMD, JNU, and TCD.
Sabine Dargent has won two Irish Times Best Set Design Awards and been nominated for two others. She is a freelance Set and Costume Designer, working mostly in theatre, with various directors and companies. Sabine has designed a few times for Jim Culleton and Fishamble Theatre Company which she always enjoys! As well as other shows for Jim, including Monged, Strandline, Tiny Plays for Ireland 1 & 2, and Spinning, she designed set and costumes for The Pride of Parnell Street, also written by Sebastian Barry, and designed by the same team. Sabine works with Mikel Murfi very often, also for Michael Keegan Dolan, Conall Morrison, Enda Walsh, Paul Mc Enaney, Selina Cartmell, and a lot of others in Ireland and abroad. Some productions she has designed have been very successful and toured for a long time, such as Swan Lake, The Walworth Farce, Rian, The Pride of Parnell Street... She loves theatre, dance, and physical theatre, but has also designed for exhibitions, films, and has designed big events, such as the GAA 2016 celebration in Croke Park, and street theatre, such as the St Patrick’s Dublin Parade sections City Fusion and Brighter, taking care of the visuals for costumes, floats, props, and make up, for about 200 participants. Her website is www.sabinedargent.com
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Biographies continued
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Mark Galione’s designs in Ireland include works for Irish Modern Dance Theatre, CoisCéim, Dance Theatre of Ireland, The Peacock, Fíbín, Hands Turn, Classic Stage Ireland, Barabbas, Vesuvius, The Derry Playhouse, The Ark, Peer to Peer, Gonzo, Theatre Lovett, Second Age Theatre Company, Barnstorm, Riot and I’m Your Man for THISISPOPBABY and Fishamble: The New Play Company most recently Swing and Inside The GPO. Recent TV includes Jack Lukeman 27 Club, All Ireland Schools Talent Search, TG4 – Country Music Legends and The All Porter Christmas Show RTE2. Mark is a staff Lighting Designer at High Res Lighting.
Playscripts of On Blueberry Hill by Sebastian Barry, and many others, are available for purchase at fishamble.com/shop
Fishamble is funded by The Arts Council and Dublin City Council. Its international touring is funded by Culture Ireland.
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Denis Clohessy has previously worked with Fishamble, including the productions The Pride of Parnell Street, Silent, Underneath, Spinning, Mainstream and Strandline. He has also produced work for theatre and dance with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, Rough Magic, Corn Exchange, Junk Ensemble and many others. He won the Irish Times theatre award for Best Design Sound in 2011 for Rough Magic’s Sodome, My Love, he was a nominee in 2015 (for Junk Ensemble’s ‘It Folds), was an associate artist with the Abbey in 2008 and was a participant on Rough Magic’s ADVANCE programme in 2012. His composition work for Film and Television includes the films Older than Ireland (Snack box Films), The Irish Pub (Atom Films), His and Hers (Venom Film), The Land of the Enlightened (Savage Film), In View (Underground Cinema), The Reluctant Revolutionary (Underground Films) and the television series Limits of Liberty (South Wind Blows) performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
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About Fishamble: The New Play Company Fishamble is an Irish theatre company that discovers, develops and produces new plays of national importance with a global reach. It has toured its productions to audiences throughout Ireland, and to 19 other countries. It champions the role of the playwright, typically supporting over 50% of the writers of all new plays produced on the island of Ireland each year. Fishamble has received many awards in Ireland and internationally, including an Olivier Award.
‘the much-loved Fishamble [is] a global brand with international theatrical presence… an unswerving force for new writing’ Irish Times ‘Ireland’s leading new writing company’ The Stage ‘forward-thinking Fishamble’ New York Times
Upcoming Shows Before by Pat Kinevane 14 Aug, Scripts Festival Mustard by Eva O'Connor 16 - 22 Aug, Summerhall, online Silent by Pat Kinevane 22 - 29 Aug, Dance Base, online
‘excellent Fishamble…Ireland’s terrific Fishamble’ Guardian
Duck Duck Goose by Caitríona Daly
‘Fishamble puts electricity into the National grid of dreams’ Sebastian Barry
The Treaty by Colin Murphy
Autumn 2021
Autumn/Winter 2021
Fishamble Needs Your Support Become a Friend of Fishamble today and support daring new playwriting and fearless voices, while enjoying the benefits of complimentary tickets, discounts on playwriting courses and other special treats. For more information, contact Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan at chandrika@fishamble.com or visit fishamble.com/support-us. Fishamble is a registered charity no. CHY 20103958.
Fishamble Team Jim Culleton: Artistic Director Eva Scanlan: General Manager and Producer Gavin Kostick: Literary Manager Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan: Marketing & Development Manager Ronan Carey: Office & Production Coordinator Cally Shine: Line Producer Freya Gillespie: Development & Marketing Officer
Fishamble Board Peter Finnegan John McGrane Louise Molloy Doireann Ní Bhriain (Chair) Ronan Nulty John O’Donnell Siobhan O’Leary (Vice-Chair) Colleen Savage
59E59 Theaters was established by the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation in 2004 to grant professional space and expertise to non-profit theater companies premiering their work in New York City. Under the leadership of Val Day, Artistic Director, and Brian Beirne, Managing Director, 59E59 Theaters presents a year-round curated program of Off Broadway plays and musicals that are nurtured and supported through highly-subsidized rental rates, as well as production, ticketing, front-of-house, marketing, and press support.
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About 59E59 Theaters
59E59 Theaters Team
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Val Day, Artistic Director Brian Beirne, Managing Director Kirsty Gaukel, Director of Marketing JessicaHart,Associate Curator/Finance Ryan James Monroe, Facilities Manager