1916 Commemoration Season Gets Underway At Birr Theatre & Arts Centre

A very special 1916 Commemoration Season gets underway at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre this week.

Starting this Saturday 16 April with the play, Sisters of the Rising, the next two months will see a packed programme of theatre, music, discussion, poetry & storytelling at the Offaly venue.

A scene from Sisters of the Rising by Offaly’s Christiane O’Mahony which opens the 1916 Commemoration Season at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre this Saturday.

Based on eye witness accounts of women who fought in the Easter Rising, Sisters of the Rising is a humorous, poignant story blending verse, live music and comic drama by Offaly’s Christiane O’Mahony.

Birr Stage Guild will then present Sowing the Wind on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 April. The variety production will give a flavour of life in Birr in the early years of the 20th century. Told through poetry, song and dramatic dialogue, it deals with the Gaelic cultural revival, the impact of WW1, the Irish Volunteers and Easter week and its aftermath.

Friday 29 April will then see one of the key commemorative events of Offaly 2016 with the premiere of the landmark documentary, Faithful Rising. Presented by Tullamore-born historian Dr Paul Rouse, it tells the story of two Offaly men who took part in the 1916 Rising, Peadar Bracken from Tullamore and Éamonn Bulfin from Birr.

For the programme in full and to book, log on to www.birrtheatre.com