Tuesday 8th December 2020: In response to the pandemic restrictions, Siamsa Tíre is partnering with artists across Ireland to bring the best of festive family theatre fun and entertainment directly into your homes. With a range of digitally screened events to choose from it provides great gift options for all your family and friends so they don’t miss out on the festive theatre traditions they are used to enjoying. The only difference is patrons can bring this live entertainment into the home, keeping their loved ones safe and entertained throughout the Christmas holidays! Gift Vouchers are also available so people can choose from digital or live events when they are available again.
To kick off the Christmas school holidays with festive family fun, digital screenings are available on Sunday 20th and Tuesday 22nd December. Keep the children busy as you make preparations for Christmas or sit down as a family to watch and join in with the performers. Gather bells, pots and wooden spoons and get ready to singalong to popular Christmas carols with the return of Whistleblast’s sparkling Christmas ‘Nutcracker’ show, or enjoy the playful, physical storytelling stage adaptation of Charles Dickens much loved ‘A Christmas Carol’. This funny, slightly scary, utterly heart-warming performance features a surprise special guest appearing as Tiny Tim. A perfect start to the Festive Season for all the children in the family!
For music lovers it offers the cherubic sounds of Eimear Quinn on Wednesday 23rd December. The purity of Eimear’s voice, coupled with a depth of interpretation of seasonal song helps us escape into a spiritual world of stillness and rejoicing, letting stress and sorrow dissolve in special alchemy, needed more than ever this Christmas. Siamsa Tíre also continues its Trad Connections series with dynamic fiddle and piano duo Fergal Scahill and Ryan Molloy. Multi-instrumentalist Fergal, is best known as the fiddle player in award winning band We Banjo 3 and Ryan Molloy’s compositional and performance work sits at the boundary of contemporary classical music and traditional Irish music and is internationally recognised for its cross-genre innovation, musicality, and deep-rooted exploration of place and time, as well as its breadth in working with a range of musicians from young amateurs to seasoned professionals. This dynamic duo brings their wizardry to the Siamsa Tíre stage for this on-line streaming on 29th December at 8pm with a selection of traditional music from the old greats to the very recently composed.
For those of you who are missing out on your annual panto experience (oh yes you are!) you can enjoy an alternative online panto with The Stories of Hans Christian Anderson starring Brian Gilligan (The Commitments, The Lion King, Once The Musical) / Rachel O’Connell (The Young Offenders, Eclipsed) / Daithi O’Donnell (Ros na Rún) / Kelly-Marie Ní Cheallaigh (Copper Face Jacks The Musical). From the greatest storyteller in the world, comes Thumbelina, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid and many more, in this one-hour fantastical journey made for all the family to enjoy together in your own home. These stories have stood the test of time for generations. Now is the time to surround ourselves with great stories with music, songs, dancing and maybe even a love story.
Siamsa Tíre will celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with streamed classic Christmas songs on the days leading up to Christmas. From 8pm nightly, starting on Sunday 13th December running right up to Christmas Eve, it will feature the National Folk Theatre Choir streaming a variety of Christmas songs for 12 days of joy and hope, as we head to 2021. They will be streamed on Siamsa Tíre’s social media channels and projected onto the Siamsa Tire building walls to add some seasonal cheer and goodwill to all. You can also enjoy the work of Kerry artist Marie O’Donoghue on Castle Street with her representation of Siamsa Tíre in the window of the old Specsavers unit where the window has been decorated with her mural.
Siamsa Tíre re-opens the building on 10th December and visitors will have access to the Siamsa Tíre Gallery and Box Office in line with Government restrictions. Visitors will be able to view Denis Buckley’s dramatic Shipbuilding (After Covid-19) mural which was painted in the gallery in August and only visible, up to now, online. Visitors can also enjoy images from the past as Siamsa Tíre begins to add its archive photographs to the walls of the lobby area in the coming weeks.
After a COVID compliant Christmas, you can shake off the January blues and join in with Catherine Young Dance’s latest energetic and joyful weekend of classes and workshops spanning the genres of Folk and Funk: West African Dance, Afro-Brazilian, Mexican Folk Dance, Palestinian Dabke Dance, Hip Hop/breakdance, House, Sean Nós and Irish dance.
Róisín McGarr, Executive Director comments, “It has been difficult for everyone this year but the support that we’ve received from The Arts Council and the Department of Culture has enabled us to still deliver the festive fun and entertainment that our customers are used to and bring it into their homes instead. Although we’re disappointed that we’re unable to open for performances this Christmas and welcome our community back to shows, we are working with partners all over the country to switch to an online offering with more great digital offerings to come in the new year until we can welcome everyone back into the theatre.”
Siamsa Tíre has implemented extensive COVID safety measures to ensure that it can re-open the building according to Government guidelines and has achieved the Failte Ireland Safety Charter and Safe Destination Badge. The building will be open to the public for access to the Siamsa Tíre Gallery and Box Office in person from 10th December every Monday and from Wednesday – Saturday, 10am – 4pm with. The building will be closed to the public two days per week on Sundays and Tuesdays. However, Box Office staff will remain available by phone as per our normal box office hours Monday – Saturdays from 10am – 6pm and one hour before and one hour after the start time of any scheduled online event. Performances in the theatre will resume once Government restrictions have been lifted.
For further information on events visit www.siamsatire.com
For further information contact:
Michelle Murphy
Marketing & PR Manager
Siamsa Tíre
M: 086 8537806
Email: [email protected]
