Rough Magic

Rough Magic marks their 40th Anniversary with a series of events celebrating their distinctive and eclectic mix of work.

• Friday 9 February | 7.00pm: Arena (live broadcast)

Hosted by Sean Rocks, Arena present a live broadcast with contributions by Anne Enright, Owen Roe, Arthur Riordan and many of the actors, musicians and writers who have made the Rough Magic story such a unique, eclectic and powerful element in Irish theatre.

• Saturday 10 February | 2.00pm The Big Bang

Historian Diarmaid Ferriter chairs a panel consisting of Paul Mercier, Jim Nolan, Eleanor Methven and Lynne Parker, all from companies founded between 1983 and 1985; Passion Machine and Rough Magic in Dublin, Charabanc in Belfast and Red Kettle in Waterford. 

We look at at the genesis this eclectic bunch of companies and how they, and others, formed the powerhouse of Irish theatre during the unprecedented explosion in independent activity at a time of deep recession.

• 3.30pm Copenhagen  by Michael Frayn

Staged Reading of COPENHAGEN by Michael Frayn. Directed by Lynne Parker and read by the original cast.

The Irish Premiere of Frayn’s internationally acclaimed play, produced by Rough Magic in 2003 starred Owen Roe, Ingrid Craigie and Declan Conlon. It received 3 Irish Times Best Actor nominations and a Best Director nomination (Lynne Parker); winning the awards for Best Production and Best Design (John Comiskey).

A chance to revisit one of the highlights of the Rough Magic cannon.

COPENHAGEN takes place in the autumn of 1941, at a critical point in World War 2, when German physicist Werner Heisenberg pays a strange visit to his Danish mentor, Niels Bohr. To this day, speculation has raged over precisely what they discussed, for these two former friends were among a handful of scientists around the globe who could unlock the secret of nuclear warfare.

In probing the mystery of this meeting, Michael Frayn has created an extraordinary play – gripping, haunting, exhilarating and moving – which asks how we can ever know why we do what we do.

• 7.00pm Here Comes Everybody

A collection of Rough Magic playwrights in a round-table discussion of the ideas that characterise their work – in all its many forms. Leading and established dramatists engage in conversation with new writers, looking into the future across subject matter, scale and form, and observing how theatre legacy can cross-fertilise with the present and regenerate the dialogue with the audience. 

The conversation will be punctuated by excerpts from classic and new Rough Magic plays performed by a team of actors to illustrate themes and performance styles –  and celebrate the sense of fun that runs through all of our work, however profound its ambition.