STRAYMAKER and THE ABBEY THEATRE in association with MIROIRS ÉTENDUS and ONCE OFF PRODUCTIONS Present

Elsewhere - Tour


8 - 24 April 2024

A new opera by Michael Gallen

Directed by Tom Creed & Conducted by Fiona Monbet

Booking Information


Tickets are available from our touring partners’ websites.

8 – 9 April at the O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin

12 April at the Íontas Arts Centre, Castleblayney

17 April at Cork Opera House, Cork

24 April at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Running time: 75 minutes

Age recommendation: 14+

"Elsewhere is an extraordinary, shocking, funny, and, ultimately, moving piece of contemporary theatre" - The Irish Times

Following its hugely successful run on the Abbey Theatre stage in 2021, this bold new opera by Michael Gallen, based on the true story of the radical “Monaghan Asylum Soviet” of 1919”, goes on tour.  Highlighted as one of the Irish Times’s Best of 2021, Elsewhere was also nominated for two Irish Times Theatre Awards, including Best Opera. We’re very excited to bring this “extraordinary, shocking, funny, and, ultimately, moving piece of contemporary theatre” to audiences in Dublin, Monaghan, Galway and Cork this spring.

In 1919, the staff of the Monaghan Asylum barricaded the hospital gates and declared themselves an independent Soviet commune. Their strike brought asylum workers and patients together in collective action, presenting a revolutionary vision of what a care-centred society could look like.

The moment of the Soviet is in constellation with our own, occurring during the 1918 Flu pandemic, and at a time when social and geographical borders were being redrawn. Marked by death and hardship, the strikers overcame sectarian divides to demand humane conditions and equal pay for women and men.

In Elsewhere, these events unfold through the visions of Celine, a patient who decades later remains ‘locked in’ to the moment of the Soviet, believing herself to be its leader. Through her interactions with the charismatic ‘Inspector of Lunatics’ we tread the borders between fantasy and incarceration.

Drawing upon the hum of murmured rosaries, the eccentric lilt of the border dialect and the glitched ornamentation of Oriel sean nós song, Elsewhere’s score melds a delicate, introspective complexity with the raucous energy of revolt. 

The libretto is co-written by Michael Gallen with poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin and playwright Carys D Coburn, and the production brings together a team of renowned Irish artists and rising international stars led by director Tom Creed and conductor Fiona Monbet. Singers and instrumentalists play a range of characters from patients and strikers to Marx and Jehovah, shape-shifting between work routines, football matches, negotiations, dances – in a dynamic that is both playful and uncanny. Over time we discover how Celine’s fate and that of the Soviet are entwined.

Dealing with themes of freedom, care and mental illness, Elsewhere explores the imagined future of a forgotten past. 

Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Monaghan, L’Institut Français Paris and La Région Hauts-de-France and supported by Monaghan Arts Office, Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris. With the support of l’Institut français à Paris et la Métropole Européenne de Lille.

 

Tour Dates 

8 – 9 April at the O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin – Book Here

12 April at the Íontas Arts Centre, Castleblayney – Book Here

17 April at Cork Opera House, Cork – Book Here

24 April at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway – Book Here

Reviews

★★★★★
"...riotous carnival dreams, musical warmth and incidental truths...this is a show that needs to be seen and heard–and more than once. It deserves to run and run."
GoldenPlec

★★★★
"...a wildly engaging experience...sensitively and beautifully crafted. A cacophony of delight that is fun, thought provoking, and often moving."
The Arts Review

Production Imagery 

 

Show Trailer 

Credits

  • Concept & Composer: Michael Gallen 
  • Libretto: Michael Gallen
  • Libretto: Annemarie Ní Churreáin
  • Libretto: Carys D Coburn 
  • Director: Tom Creed
  • Conductor : Fiona Monbet
  • Set & Costume Designer: Katie Davenport
  • Lighting Designer: Sinead McKenna
  • Vocal Director: Romain Louveau
  • Choreographer: Shawn Ahern
  • Video Designer: Luca Trufarelli
  • Associate Director: Eoghan Carrick
  • Associate Set & Costume Designer: Laura Fajardo Castro
  • Associate Lighting Designer: Matt Burke
  • Producer: Maura O’Keeffe
  • Producer: Cally Shine
  • Singer: Daire Halpin
  • Singer: Fearghal Curtis
  • Singer: Adrian Dwyer
  • Singer: Carolyn Holt
  • Singer: Amy Ní Fhearraigh
  • Singer: Aaron O'Hare
  • Singer: Sarah Shine
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Aurélie Martin
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Constant Madon
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Cyprien Noisette
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Elsa Moatti
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Julia Macarez
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Sarah Margaine
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Michèle Pierre
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Amélie Potier
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Sarah Van der Vlist
  • Ensemble Miroirs Étendus: Romain Louveau


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Abbey Theatre
26/27 Lower Abbey Street
Dublin 1
Ireland
D01 K0F1