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FAMILY THEATRE: Hansel And Gretel

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Is hunger stronger than love? In this story it seems to be as the poor woodsman’s empty stomach goes to his head, he gives in to the bony step-mother and they leave Hansel and Gretel in the forest, not just once but twice and the second time there won’t be any moonstones to follow back

€8 – €28

THEATRE: The Time Machine

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

From the creators of Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Christmas Gothic, I, Elizabeth, Dalloway, The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe and Austen’s Women. 2018: In this age of uncertainty, where the shadows of tyranny, intolerance and war darken the path into tomorrow, how much time do we have left?  If civilisation falls today, what will become of us? Rebecca Vaughan presents

€12 – €15

THEATRE: Drinking In America

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Bottom Dog Theatre Company return to Riverbank Arts Centre with Drinking in America. This award winning one man show features acclaimed actor Liam O’Brien playing 12 distinct different roles. From a grasping show-biz hustler; a latter-day Willy Loman on the road; and a ghetto junkie, OBrien presents the most challenging work of a career that

€14 – €16
Recurring

Kildare Youth Theatre presents: The Act of Oblivion

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Two plays, two stories. Each starts out at the same time on the stage. One is oblivious to the other. One play fights to be the story that we hear and see. The other will be the one unheard and forgotten. Neither the actors nor the audience knows which play will take control of the

€5 – €10

THEATRE: Swan Lake/Loch na hEala

Newbridge Town Hall Main Street, Newbridge, Kildare, Ireland

Following a critically acclaimed international tour that included Dublin Theatre Festival; Sadler’s Wells, London and Sydney Opera House, The winner of best production and best costume design at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017 comes to Newbridge Town Hall for two nights only. From the imagination of one of Ireland’s foremost dance and theatre makers

€20 – €25

COMEDY THEATRE: The Curse of The Button Accordion

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Comedian Sharon Mannion pens a hilarious show based on her worries, fears and adventures growing up in a Roscommon village. Will she live up to the expectations of her ex-showband star father and her Midwest FM radio-loving mother? On receiving a shiny button accordion, Sharon is thrust into the local limelight. But things soon turn sour, when

€12 – €15

THEATRE: What Would Ma Say?

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

What Would Ma Say?, a hilarious play based on the best-seller of the same name. Kathleen Doyle tells the true story of her remarkable family and their exploits growing up in Dublin in the tenements in the 1950’s and her teenage years in Crumlin in the early 1960’s. Kathleen describes Ma as an ordinary woman

€16 – €18
Recurring

THEATRE: Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Adam, an American doctor, Edward, an Irish journalist, and Michael, an English academic, have little to unite them beyond being human in the same small space. Yet somehow, together, they determine to ward off madness and forestall despair. Somewhere lurk their unseen captors yet, in the cell, there are stories of adventure and love, there

€16 – €18

THEATRE: From Under The Bed

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Seamus O’Rourke once again brings us a story full of heartache and humour, as a pair of aging, rural, bachelor brothers arrive at a point in their lives, where decisions have to be made about certain things… well the buying of a television for one… and one subject leads to another and the next thing,

€16 – €18

THEATRE: Take Off Your Cornflakes

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

A heartfelt comedy drama about love, starring Pat Nolan (Fair City) and Rosemary Henderson (Fair City and Father Ted). ‘Take off your Corn Flakes’ tells the story of a fun filled marriage that hits crisis when Pats character gets Alzheimer’s. When we go out of our mind, where do we go? Full of tears, joy

€14 – €16

THEATRE: Norah

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

1981 Belfast. Norah McVeigh is battling to save her brother Kyran. He made the decision to go on hunger strike and has lost consciousness. Norah is now faced with the difficult decision to respect his political choice or save his life. Through confrontations with the British Foreign Office, the Catholic Church, the RUC, the IRA,

€14 – €16

THEATRE: My Left Nut

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Set in Belfast in the early 2000s, My Left Nut tells the true story of Michael Patrick who developed hydrocele testis when he was 14, a condition which caused one of his testicles to start swelling. Too embarrassed to tell his mother, he let the condition worsen for three years until he couldn’t ignore it

€12 – €15

THEATRE: Autumn Royal

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

AUTUMN ROYAL - Written by Kevin Barry, the multi-award winning writer of the novels Beatlebone and City Of Bohane, is coming to the Riverbank Arts Centre! Following the success run of its world premiere last year, Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry embarks on a nationwide tour, and comes to the Riverbank Arts Centre 18-19 May.

€16 – €18
Recurring

LOCAL ARTS: The Crucible

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Newbridge Drama Group is back, this time taking on Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. It is a story of tender love and murderous jealousy; of lives destroyed by false accusations; of passion and adultery and sin and of a storm of terror  let loose through the effects of real and pretended mass hysteria on the

€12 – €15

The Successful TD

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

One of your own – a vote for Tull is a vote for yourself! THE SUCCESSFUL TD follows the Trials, Tribulations, misadventures and hilarious antics of TULL McADOO as he seeks re-election to the Dail in the "October Elections” Written by John B Keane in 1967 he displays his edge for humor and satire that are uncomfortably close to the politics of

€18 – €20

DINNER THEATRE: A Midsummer Night’s Murder

Kildare House Hotel Dublin Road, Kildare Town, Ireland

It's the height of Summer and temperatures aren't the only things on the rise. Bloodlust is on the boil and there's savagery simmering when one of the nation's most powerful men invites the great and the good to a midsummer night's feast. Murder, revenge and pollen are in the air as the long days draw

Recurring

THEATRE: A Tale Of The Expected

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Down at Heel Productions, with the aid of Kildare County Council Arts Service, present A Tale of the Expected, a bittersweet comedy by novelist Martina Reilly. Lana is eighteen and pregnant. The father is Roman, aka, Mr Party Central and his family run the local chipper. Lana is determined to have the baby while the

€10 – €12

THEATRE: What Good is Looking Well When You’re Rotten On The Inside?

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

One month before his death, retired civil servant and man of few words Paddy O’Grady had a sudden urge to talk. Using a portable cassette tape recorder, he recorded 15 hours of stories about leprechauns, aliens and lonely pharmacists; absurdist political satire; musings on life, love and death. Paddy’s granddaughter, Emma O’Grady, later discovered he

€12 – €15

CULTURE NIGHT – KYT present Karamazoo

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Karamazoo is a 25 minute monologue for a young performer written in 2003 by London writer Philip Ridley. It is one of the most perfect pieces of writing for a young actor, combining fresh storytelling and comic characterisation that slowly reveals an unflinching critique of a failed social policy through the savage grief of a

THEATRE: Hero

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Hero by Ken Rogan is an original work about a man’s struggles with love. Life quickly grows more complicated for Smithy (Daithí Mac Suibhne) after a chance encounter with Marissa. This is one man's hilarious, down to earth odyssey through love, ankle injuries and what happens when you don't know how to lose. “It’s a

€12 – €14

THEATRE: Frank Pig Says Hello

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Desperately funny and yet deeply tragic, FRANK PIG SAYS HELLO is one of the great classics of modern Irish theatre. It tells the story of Francie Brady growing up in a small Irish town in the 1960s and his descent towards a brutal act that shocks his community. Described as “one of the saddest and

€14 – €16

THEATRE: Jane Eyre

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you and full as much heart! The young, orphaned Jane meets with cruelty at the hands of her aunt and then at the school to which she is banished. She

€14 – €16

THEATRE: Holy Mary

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Holy Mary by Eoin Colfer is the story of two nine year old girls on the days leading up to the social occasion of the year: Their First Holy Communion. Mary and Majella have been mortal enemies since baby infants, and things have gotten even worse since Mary’s daddy moved in with Majella’s mammy. Both

€16 – €18

THEATRE: Bat The Father Rabbit The Son

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

It’s Dublin in the 1980s. Rabbit is a self-made haulage magnate. But something’s wrong. He cuts a deal with his underling Keogh to help him find his lost moorings. The quest is hampered by his dead father Bat, Citizen Army volunteer and pawn shop assistant, bubbling up. The struggle between father and son, past and

€12 – €15

COMEDY THEATRE: Alternative Bedtime Stories.

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Once upon a time, two fair maidens dragged fairy tales kicking and screaming into the 21st century in this sharp and original review of all things “happily ever after”. Follow the trail of breadcrumbs to see your favourite bedtime stories poked with a big stick before being tossed into a cauldron with physical comedy and

€14 – €16

Recurring

LOCAL ARTS: KYT presents By The Bog of Cats

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

By the Bog of Cats is Marina Carr’s searing tragedy inspired by Euripides’ Medea and set in the Irish midlands. Spurned by the man she loves Hester Swaine lives as an outcast on the edge of the bog from where most of the settled community want her gone. Faced with the loss of her home

THEATRE: BEFORE – A new play with much music by Pat Kinevane

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

From the team that brought you Forgotten, Underneath and the Olivier Award-winning Silent, Before is a new play with much music, set in Clery’s of Dublin, on the very day this iconic department store shuts - for good. Pontius is inside, trying to choose a gift for his estranged daughter, whom he hasn’t seen for

€16 – €18

THEATRE: THE MATCHMAKER by John B. Keane

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

THE MATCHMAKER stars Mary McEvoy (best known for her role as Biddie in the long-running RTE series Glenroe) and Irish actor and comedian Jon Kenny (part of the Irish comic duo d’Unbelievables). Jon Kenny is also well known for appearing in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted. Together they play a myriad of characters in

€18 – €20

THEATRE: Remember To Breathe

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

In a pool in post-earthquake New Zealand, recent emigrant Maeve is learning to swim. Self-professed ‘swimaholic’ coach Doreen eggs her on. But as she struggles to stay afloat, Maeve must do battle with the water and an unresolved dilemma with her much-loved father back home. Mixing serious themes with warm humour, Remember to Breathe is

€14 – €16

DINNER THEATRE: Only Fools The (cushty) Dining Experience

Kildare House Hotel Dublin Road, Kildare Town, Ireland

Ten 42 Productions in association with Interactive Theatre International (Faulty Towers - The Dining Experience) presents a brand new show. Transporting guests to The Nags Head for some wheeling, dealing and eating, this fully immersive, highly interactive theatre show makes for a t’riffic night out – you’d be a plonker to miss it! Del Boy

€3 – €50

LOCAL ARTS: Kildare Youth Theatre present HAMLET

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

So, you are 18. You go abroad to third level. You are a second year in the University of Wittenburg. You study Philosophy and Greek and Roman Civilization. Tragically, your father dies while you are in your first semester of second year. You return home for the funeral, which is massive: people from everywhere come

€6 – €10

THEATRE: Pump Girl by Abbie Spallen

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

There's one in every town, and they call her the Pumpgirl. She works in the garage, changes the oil and thinks she's one of the lads. She's sweet on 'No-Helmet' Hammy, but he loves no one but himself. He's out all night with his racing boys, whilst wife Sinead's off on a joyride of her

€14 – €16

THEATRE: And Thank You

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

And thank you... is a play about an ordinary man living in rural Ireland who gets saved... Saved from a life of pub talk and prophesizing... King John O’Sullivan used to be able to drink fifteen pints without having to piddle, now, it’s every nine. Going to The Gents so often can wear a man

€16 – €18

Recurring

LOCAL ARTS: Riff Raff Drama present: The Will to Surprise

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Riff Raff Drama Group are back! The Newbridge drama group present the premiere of a hilarious new play, The Will to Surprise by Dave Tiernan, which will leave you in tears of laughter. Old Joe Murphy has passed away, his family are called to hear his last will and testament in his cottage in the

€10 – €12

LOCAL ARTS: Kildare Youth Theatre presents The Small Hours

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

This is a chance for local audiences to see The Small Hours by Katherine Soper prior to it being staged in the Dorfman in The National Theatre in London. The Small Hours captures a moment in the lives of 8 teenagers and then follows them through the decades, through climate change and a changing world,

€6 – €10

THEATRE: Aggy’s Anthem (Rehearsed Reading)

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Rehearsed reading of new play by Newbridge-based actor/writer Mary Ryan. Two worlds collide in the Meath Gaeltacht, when a song collector from inner city Dublin arrives for the local festival. Aggy (85) is a Kildare widow, determined to perform her songs and exhibit the lifetime of trophies she has won at local shows, despite neighbour

FREE, booking advised

THEATRE: Sophie,  Ben, and other Problems by Conor Burke

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Sophie and Ben love each other a lot, but sometimes, they make that a bit too difficult for themselves. Two twenty-somethings who are trying to find their way in the world, they guide us through their lives of low-key alcoholism, deeply rooted regret, and unfortunate sexual mishaps. Join Sophie and Ben as they impart some

€10 – €12

THEATRE: Halcyon Days by Deirdre Kinahan

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

Patricia has a zest for life and men when she is thrust together with Sean who is languishing in a nursing home. They form a funny and spiky relationship but is friendship the most important thing? Don't miss this humorous and touching play. Deirdre Kinahan is one of Ireland's leading playwrights with recent hits such

€16 – €18

THEATRE: SPLICED by Timmy Creed

Ballymore Eustace Handball Alley Sousheen Common, Ballymore Eustace, Kildare, Ireland

Chalk It Down Productions in association with The Everyman present: SPLICED Timmy is contemplating his 21 years playing GAA. Creed is now bringing sport and drama together exposing his relationship with the fastest field game in the world, hurling. Going along the journey of discovery and self-expression with Timmy is hard hitting, real, and eye-opening

€14 – €16

THEATRE: Madhouse

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

MADHOUSE is based on the unbelievable true life story of comedian PJ Gallagher. When PJ was ten, his Ma, a nurse, moved six men with schizophrenia into the family home to care for them full time. “It was like this. When you went through our front door and turned right, you were in mad land,

€16 – €18
Recurring

THEATRE: Shackleton

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold... safe return doubtful.” Shackleton tells the story of the sinking of the ship Endurance on the Antarctic’s icy Weddell Sea in 1916, and the subsequent escape of the Irish expedition leader Ernest Shackleton and his crew from the Antarctic over a period of eighteen months, finally

€18 – €20

Recurring

LOCAL ARTS: NEWBRIDGE DRAMA PRESENTS 45 Seconds from Broadway

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

From America’s master of contemporary Broadway comedy, Neil Simon, here is a take on behind the scenes action in the entertainment world, this time near the heart of the theatre district. 45 Seconds from Broadway takes place in the legendary “Polish Tea Room” on New York’s 47th Street. Here Broadway theatre personalities gather and schmooze.

€12 – €15

LOCAL ARTS: Newbridge Drama Group Presents – 45 Seconds from Broadway by Neil Simon

Riverbank Arts Centre Main Street, Newbridge, Ireland

From America’s master of contemporary Broadway comedy, here is a take on behind the scenes action in the entertainment world, this time near the heart of the theatre district. 45 Seconds from Broadway takes place in the legendary “Polish Tea Room” on New York’s 47th Street. Here Broadway theatre personalities gather and schmooze. Great acting

€12 – €15