WITNESS: A SMASHING TIMES SEASON OF PLAYS, PERFORMANCE, AND READINGS

Smashing Times Theatre Company present three plays and a showcase reading of new work about rising up out of difficult situations and making a new beginning.
 
Testimonies           
By Paul Kennedy and Mary Moynihan
5 & 6 November 2013, 8.15pm (Free; tickets required – available by phone or in person at our box office)
Schools Performance: A Day Out from Testimonies, Friday 8 November, 11am (Free; tickets required – contact box office for more details)
Dramatic monologues adapted from the experiences of people who have lost loved ones to suicide and from the experiences of people who have been through a mental health crisis and survived.  Testimonies is presented as part of Acting for the Future, a project using theatre to promote positive mental health and run in partnership with the Samaritans and Irish Association of Suicidology and supported by ESB Electric Aid Ireland.
 
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Installation of ‘Living Theatre’ performances
Created by Mary Moynihan
Written by Paul Kennedy
7 November 2013, 8.15pm (€14/€12)
An installation of ‘living theatre’ performances exploring themes of conflict and trauma.  Using the body as a site of performance, memory and emotion and centering on experiences of conflict in Northern Ireland, Thou Shalt Not Kill imagines the future through a remembrance of things past.
 
Uprising                  
Scripted by Tara McKevitt
Devised by Smashing Times
8 & 9 November 2013, 8.15pm (€14/€12)
A fusion of text, physical movement and dance, Uprising explores memories and experiences of conflict and pathways to peace
 
Showcase Reading of New Work
Matinee, 9 November, 2pm (€5)
Reading of new work in progress from playwrights including Sinead O’Loughlin, Gerard Humphreys and Mary Moynihan.
 
All performances followed by post-show discussions with the artists and invited guest speakers.
 
Company Information
 
Smashing Times Theatre Company – Theatre for Change
Smashing Times Theatre Company is a professional theatre company involved in performance, training and participation. The work of the company is underpinned by a rights-based approach and a commitment to artistic excellence and social engagement.
The company was established in 1991by a group of women actors, who met at the Focus Theatre, Dublin. The company has two high-profile patrons – Brian Friel and Tim Pat Coogan. Smashing Times Theatre Company is supported by Dublin City Council Arts Office.
Smashing Times Theatre Company is now established as a leading professional arts organisation that promotes social justice and equality through high quality artistic processes.
The work takes inspiration from practitioners including Constantine Stanislavski (searching for a sense of truth and depth), Yoshi Oida (creating the life of a human spirit on stage and the use of fundamental energies), Viola Spolin (the physical, intuitive, invisible) and  Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.
Smashing Times is committed to ‘Theatre for Change’, using theatre as a form of knowledge and as a means of transforming society, to promote social justice, human rights and equality for all. The company achieves its aims through implementing specific projects, which consist of professional theatre performances and post-show discussions, participative theatre and storytelling workshops, creative symposiums and professional outreach.
The company uses innovative arts based projects to entertain, to challenge, to celebrate and to promote issues such as gender equality, cultural diversity, positive mental health and suicide prevention and peace building and reconciliation. The company aims through its work to make the world a better place, to  use drama and theatre to empower people, to promote a inclusive and equitable society and to speak out against poverty and social exclusion.