Theatre Nights: Here's what's on Cork's stages this week

Heritage Week begins this coming Saturday, with events and opportunities all over the country, so make the most of it!

Here in Cork we have already enjoyed the Youghal Medieval Festival and the West Cork History Festival, but there is lots more to come, to awaken or feed our ion for our past. Something for everyone!

And if you are travelling around during August, don’t forget it’s on everywhere. Check it all out on www.heritageweek.ie.

There is still time to catch Pakie O’Callaghan’s delightful Celebration Of The Stories Of Eamon Kelly at Cork Arts Theatre, as it runs to Saturday.

This show developed out of a 2022 RTÉ radio programme to mark International Storytelling Day. Pakie was invited to tell a couple of tales, and as a lifelong irer of Kelly, opted to tell two of his. He was subsequently invited to do a full length show and this is the result. A lovely way to spend an evening. Or indeed your lunchtime today, as it’s on then too.

Next week’s lunchtime & supper show is The Empty Nest, running Wednesday to Saturday, August 21-24. Oisín Flores Sweeney’s debut play is a hilarious piece of theatre that looks at how couples negotiate life after the kids leave: their dreams, disappointments, longings and uncompromising opinions on everything.

Booking on www.corkartstheatre.com or 021 450 5624.

Tonight, for one night only, the Glen Theatre Drama Group are at Everyman with that John B. Keane classic, The Rain At The End Of The Summer. First seen in summer, 1967, it has lost none of its sharply observant exploration of the class system, sexual liberation and the sanctity of family and marriage. Directed by Tadhg O’Keeffe. 8pm start.

And this Saturday, August 17, the Everyman is celebrating Cork Heritage Day with Behind the Scenes tours. Free, but booking essential.

On Wednesday and Thursday next week, Souls, Shadows And Secrets, a new play written and directed by Barry Monahan, gives voice to three of Ireland’s most prominent historical figures: Constance Markievicz, Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

With a fictional young Irish woman as narrator, this performance integrates live traditional Irish music with Pathé newsreel footage of the period and is compulsive viewing. Call 021 450 1673 or www.everymancork.com.

Now, something unusual in the way of theatrical venues coming up next week, when Rolling Clouds Theatre Company present Conor Mherson’s Rum & Vodka at the Roundy House on Wednesday and Thursday, August 22-23.

Mherson’s classic tale of booze and all of the debauchery we can all fall victim to within the grind of big city life, is the perfect show for this venue as it chronicles, most appositely, the three-day bender undertaken by a young man trying to break free from a monotonous existence and too many responsibilities. Not suitable for under 16s.

Directed by Tommy Daly and performed by Eoin O’Reilly, it starts at 7pm (doors 6.30pm) and runs for one hour. Tickets on https://www.ticketsource.eu/.

Heading towards Killarney? Don’t forget The Jurassic Live World Tour at the INEC Arena from Thursday to Saturday next week, Aug 22-25. Call 064 667 1555 or see www.inec.ie.

And down at our wonderful folk theatre, Siamsa Tíre in Tralee, something ideally suited to littlest theatregoers this Sunday, August 18, with Little Bo Peep and The Three Little Pigs, presented by Fairytale Stageshow. 2pm start.

Next week, that classic musical, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber runs Friday to Sunday, Aug 23-25, with performances at 7.30pm plus a matinee at 2.30pm on the Sunday.

Siamsa Tíre booking on 066 712 3055 or www.siamsatire.com.