The Belfast Ensemble present
Abomination: a DUP opera
24 March - 2 April 2022
by Conor Mitchell
Booking Information
Dates: 24 March – 2 April 2022 on the Abbey Stage
Times: Mon – Sat 7.30pm, Sat matinee 2pm
Tickets: €15 – €45
Running Time: 70 minutes, no interval
“They are poofs!”
After a sell-out run at Outburst Queer Arts Festival, this award-winning smash-hit opera finally makes its Dublin premiere.
Revolutionary in form, Abomination centres on the scandalous live radio interview given by NI Politician Iris Robinson, when she referred to homosexuality as an ‘abomination’ – an act that has gone down in Irish queer history and instantly re-ignited the Northern Irish equality debate.
With their unique high-impact, multi-disciplinary style, the Belfast Ensemble wrap this story in a fresh web of incendiary historical comments by DUP members on the subject of gay rights, marriage equality, ‘poofs’ and ‘perverts’ to shockingly theatrical effect – challenging the power of words in the hands of the powerful.
Contemporary, political, comic, and emotionally complex, this riotous Northern Irish original redefined what a 21st-century opera could say, and why… and with just a touch of drag!
Originally produced by The Belfast Ensemble and Outburst Arts for Outburst Queer Arts Festival 2019, with support from The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and British Council.
Supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.
Reviews
★★★★★
'An outstanding new work!'
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian
★★★★
'Abomination hits the right notes'
The Irish Examiner
Credits
- Cast: Rebecca Caine
- Cast: Matthew Cavan
- Cast: Christopher Cull
- Cast: Tony Flynn
- Cast: John Porter
- Cast: Sarah Richmond
- Director: Conor Mitchell
- Composer/Liberetto: Conor Mitchell
- Video designer: Conan McIvor
- Lighting Design: Mary Tumelty
- Photography: Neil Harrison