Encore Productions – Community Company in Residence – update November 2024
Normally seen in and out of An Táin Arts Centre and all around the town of Dundalk, Encore Productions have been on the road this last while – touring to Bray and Dublin – and even on the telly!
After well received performances of their original play ‘The Beckett List’ here at An Táin Arts Centre in June and more recently a matinee performance in September the group have been entertaining and educating audiences further afield at the Mermaid Theatre in Bray and at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Beckett’s old university – Trinity College Dublin.
It was insightful to be by the Wicklow coast in Bray – not far from where Beckett was born in Foxrock and close to Greystones which features in the play as it was there at the Royal Hotel that Samuel Beckett heard the radio broadcast announcing the start of World War 2.
Trinity College also features in the play as it was here that Beckett had his University Education and taught for a while. Both performances were enormously satisfying and the significance of the locations had added to the groups understanding of the playwright’s life and work.
Both performances boasted great audiences and the shows were warmly received with wonderful feedback from the crowds and hosting venues all of whom complimented the confidence and commitment of the acting as well as the ambition and beauty of the staging of the show itself.
Among those attending the show at the Samuel Beckett theatre were RTE’s Valerie Waters and acclaimed actor Maria Doyle Kennedy, star of ‘Kin’ and ‘The Commitments’ who was very impressed by the show and how high all the actors were aiming.
On the 6th November RTE 1 broadcast an edition of Nationwide celebrating the 75th anniversary of RehabCare in Ireland which chronicled the organisations evolution from TB care and convalescence through sheltered workshops to the modern training, employment and community based provision of today. The entire second half of the show was given over to Encore Productions and their innovative partnership with An Táin bringing opportunities for quality arts, theatre and creativity within reach of all members of the community.
The show is still available on the RTE player – don’t miss it!
So what’s next? Well, Encore have followed Beckett to Dublin and Wicklow. Who’s for France?
The Beckett Festival in Roussillon has taken place in Provence for the last 23 years. It is here that Beckett and his partner Suzanne lived after their resistance group was exposed. Encore will seek to develop a link with this festival and who knows – may even make it there as performers one day.
Until then we will start to learn about another ground breaking author –Mary Shelly, and how her life and times were to shape the creation of her most famous novel –‘Frankenstein’.