The UK-based Kildare man and musical legend, Jack Lukeman, returns to Riverbank Arts Centre for a very special show. Jack Lukeman is a singer-songwriter, performer, raconteur and a whole lot more besides. He is a platinum-selling, a critically acclaimed artist who continues to win a worldwide fan base with his unique multi-octave voice. Jack has
In 2021 The Creative Well and “This Must Be the Place” will celebrate 10 years of arts and health in Kildare. So this year we will be gathering The Well, its participants and its work since its inception to create a celebratory publication for our 10-year anniversary. The Creative Well visual arts programme of work
An exhibition exploring paper folding. The art of paper folding, generally known as origami, allows us to form a bridge between our 2D and our 3D understanding of the world, with all sorts of applications from space travel to medicine. One fold and we move from the flat surface to the world of objects. Folding
The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century. The television series Downton Abbey followed the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who worked for them at the turn of the 20th century in an Edwardian English country house. Over
Over the past ten years Anxo Lorenzo, Jim Murray, Dónal O’Connor and Jack Talty have been at the forefront of highly creative Galician and Irish music-making – as players, composers, arrangers, accompanists, producers and record label owners. Their individual talents as working musicians have seen them initiate hundreds of thoughtful and innovative projects, and the
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, a tragic-comedy directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson, is about a free-spirited rogue who takes over the ward of a mental hospital through a combination of ingenuity and chutzpah. Based on Ken Kesey’s celebrated novel, the film uses a metaphorical framework - the madhouse - to symbolise
Using popular titles such as 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and 'The Gruffalo', Nicola Foxe combines the wonders of storytelling with the benefits of yoga creating a captivating 'Yoga Storytelling' experience for the children. Moving their way through the beginning and middle to the end of the session, the children will learn breathing techniques
Pow… Sock… Smash… Batman spends so much time fighting crime and pouring over clues in the deep dark Batcave that he is exhausted. But when he finally gets a holiday, he discovers that he hasn’t a clue how to relax! He tries baking to see if that will help him to calm down but it
++ Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been postponed until Summer 2020 - please keep an eye on our website for further details ++ The story behind the President books! The President of Ireland, a tale of forgotten glasses, the adventures of a wandering V.I.C (Very Important Cat) and a big surprise! Join author
From the revolutionary minds of Pixar Animation Studios and the acclaimed director of MONSTERS, INC. comes a hilarious uplifting adventure where the sky is no longer the limit. Carl Fredicksen, a retired balloon salesman, is part rascal, part dreamer who is ready for his last chance at high-flying excitement. Tying thousands of balloons to his
The first solo comedy show from Tadhg Hickey introduces you to Feargal; a downtrodden but cheery man who fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming an alcoholic. Using the Catholic calendar as a roadmap, Feargal leads us on a surreal and hilarious journey with many poignant twists in the hope of arriving at a sort of
When Billi’s family learn that her beloved grandmother, Nai-Nai, has been given mere months to live, they hastily stage a family wedding to facilitate a gathering in China. But they refuse to tell Nai-Nai about her illness. Billi, who was born in China but has been raised in the US, struggles with this deception –
Jason Byrne has had a hard year. But he doesn’t want to talk about that. He’s wrecked but ready. Ready for a laugh. This show is a celebration. A celebration of triumph over adversity. A celebration of the fact that everybody’d got their own crap going on and they don’t need to listen to someone
The Speks present a lively show of nursery rhymes and sing-along songs set to acoustic Irish music which will have adults and kids jumping in their seats! Their hand-clapping, toe-tapping, hearty-laughing show is all about life on Glasses Island – a magical island off the coast of Co. Clare where everybody wears glasses! The Speks
1968: Having fallen on hard times, and desperate to re-establish herself, Judy Garland (an astounding Renée Zellweger) is left with no other choice than to accept a residency in London to perform a five-week, sold-out series of concerts. Separated from her children, who are back in Los Angeles where her ex-husband is fighting her for
When Pamela a free-spirited, fun-loving 44-year-old single mother becomes pregnant from a one-night stand, she is shocked! But not as shocked (and horrified) as her straight-laced teenage daughter Ally, who finds her mother’s behaviour embarrassing at the best of times. As both women have to come to terms with the impending new arrival, they are
Following their highly-acclaimed 2018 tour, and their extended sold-out run at the Peacock Theatre, Livin’ Dred Theatre present the award-winning Trad by Mark Doherty. An hilarious, absurd and poignant tale of a 100-year-old Irishman… and his father! Together they set out to discover the son they never knew he had. “There’s a child belonging to
Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, Doctor Strange) plays the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Now seen by over 900,000 people worldwide, the original broadcast returns to international cinemas to mark National Theatre Live’s 10th birthday. As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed
Abominable takes audiences on an epic 2,000-mile adventure from the streets of Shanghai to the breathtaking Himalayan snowscapes. When teenage Yi encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, she and her mischievous friends, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and Peng (Albert Tsai), name him “Everest” and embark on an epic
Daniel is 20 and serving time in a young offenders’ institute, where he has found God and wants nothing more than to become a priest. But his violent past means that's an impossibility. Released on parole he is sent to a rural sawmill but makes a detour to the local church, where he is mistaken
SPACE TO PLAY is, an interactive, free-play space designed by Orla Kelly of Early Childhood Creativity in collaboration with Little Bigtop. Activities include a wide array of sensory play activities to explore light and dark, phones that link you to the sounds of outer space, soft planet reading rugs and mini rocket making. This exhibition in the McKenna
Moon Woke Me Up Nine times It was still 4am So I built a rocket with my friends And went on a journey that never ends Come up and away with us. Come and play with us. Come build a rocket that will BLAST OFF and take us on a magical journey to the moon.
Illustrator Victor and his wife Marianne seem to have nothing in common any more. He detests the modern technologies that she can’t seem to live without. When Antoine offers Victor a re-enactment service that allows customers to live in any era of their choice, Victor chooses to go back to the rainy day in 1975,
With the outbreak of WW2, the Irish government introduces internment without trial for all suspected IRA members, and Bernard Carroll – a naive young Dubliner who believes he is a revolutionary - is swept up with hundreds of others and held in a ramshackle internment camp on the plains of the Curragh. The camp is
This workshop is for anybody interested in working spatially with paper (teachers, artists, mathematicians and complete novices). The workshops will explore a range of paper folding techniques and methods; from simple one page folds to modular and complex geographic shapes, to Kirigami and other intricate paper engineering processes. We would like to invite you to
As part of FOLD/UNFOLD exhibition by Vanya Lambrecht Ward we are screening Between the Folds by Vanessa Goulds. Between the Folds is an award winning documentary which chronicles the stories of ten artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned more conventional career paths to forge lives as modern-day paper folders. USA / 2008 /
Folding, bending, tucking, crumbling and flattening are but some of the things we need for making paper space. We like to invite you to come and play, explore and discover the making of paper spaces. We will build and construct great geometric shapes and other structures using only paper and no glue… Not just a
This workshop explores creating fictional character who travel backwards and forwards in time. Think of Back to the Future, Doctor Who and Hermione using the Time Turner in Harry Potter! The workshop covers key skills: character creation, opening the story, setting the scene and plot. Writers will return home with the beginnings of (and in
The Celtic Tenors – three tenors, one voice. This charismatic, globetrotting trio are the most successful classical crossover act to emerge from Ireland. The Celtic Tenors signed with Sony Classics in 2000 and have sold over 1 million albums worldwide to date, achieving Top 10 positions on Billboard Charts in the United States and Canada.
Writer-director Greta Gerwig presents this new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel about four sisters growing up at the end of the American Civil War. As the March sisters struggle to live their lives on their own terms, they all face challenges, both similar and different. Jo wants to be a writer; Meg longs
Crowman is Dan Lonergan’s account of the hilarious characters that inhabit his life on a daily basis and a true love story that never was. By turns poignant and comic, Jon Kenny carries the audience on a roller-coaster ride from his childhood to middle-age, from the hurling pitch to the pub and from one uproariously
Queen’s County draws inspiration from the fist trialled plantations operated by the English crown in Ireland in the 16th century in counties Laois and Offaly. The one in Laois became known as Queen’s County. This devised play explores displacement and alienation through the lens of young people’s experience today, and includes episodes on commuting, rural
Exiled on a remote mountainside in South America, the Monos are a group of teenage soldiers left to guard a single hostage: Doctora. Who they are and where they come from is not known. They have their orders from the Organisation communicated by radio, and also sporadic visits from the Messenger, serving as a voice
As imaginative as the creative process it documents, this is a uniquely intimate journey through the inspiration, writing and recording of a PJ Harvey record. A collaboration between writer and musician, Harvey, and award-winning photographer Seamus Murphy. Seeking first-hand experience of the countries she wanted to write about, Harvey accompanied Murphy on some of his
Over the last decade, Kildare County Council have funded a diverse range of films through the Short Grass Films bursary awards and film commission. The repertoire includes short film, animation, documentary, drama as well as feature length films, many of which have received national and international accolades. Kildare Short Grass Films have supported the making
This striking feature debut by Tom Sullivan, Arracht (Monster) is set in the wild shores of Ireland’s west coast as the potato blight descends in 1845. Stripped back and fierce, it’s an intense small-scale Irish-language drama which plunges the viewer into the cold desperation of those Famine times. Arracht is a visually expressive piece centred
Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to his World War I epic, 1917. At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race
The Lonsdale Project is a new theatre show about the life and work of Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971) - chemist, crystallographer, anti-war campaigner, writer, mother, and former inmate of Holloway Prison. Despite being a pioneering Irish scientist and activist, Kathleen Lonsdale’s name and legacy are curiously unknown by the general public. Super Paua aims to change
Covid-19 COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) Following the measures announced by An Taoiseach on Thursday, 12th March, Riverbank Arts Centre is complying with the directive to close our building from 12th March (We are closely monitoring the situation and will reopen when advised that it is safe to do so). See statement by Riverbank Director here. This sudden
Due to the Government directive to close all public buildings until 29th March, unfortunately this event is not going ahead as scheduled. All ticket holders have been contacted. The Lonsdale Project is a new theatre show about the life and work of Kathleen Lonsdale - chemist, crystallographer, anti-war campaigner, writer, mother, and former inmate
We are missing our Monday night cinema programme - and we know many of you are very regular attenders of all the screenings, so we would like to offer an alternative Monday night cinema at home option for access to some of the best new, independent Irish and international cinema. First off, we can all
10 String Symphony were due to tour Ireland in May 2020 and play at Riverbank Arts Centre on 17th May, as part of a Music Network tour. Due to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, the artists have postponed the tour until May 2021. However, we are delighted that Christian Sedelmyer and Rachel Baiman of 10 String
Online Arts and Storytelling workshop with Paul Timoney What do alien animals look like? Are they huge like dinosaurs… or tiny like bugs? Or are they terrifying like huge bugs… or cute, like tiny dinosaurs? Can they talk? Or turn invisible? Or even fly? Wait… we have things that fly here on Earth - that’s
On her wild quest for love, 9-year-old Benni’s untamed energy drives everyone around her to despair. She is small, but dangerous. Wherever Benni ends up, she is immediately expelled. The wild 9-year-old girl has already become what child protection services call a “system crasher”. Profoundly affected by childhood trauma, Benni is by turns bright, funny
ER doctor Rike (Susanne Wolff) embarks on a one-woman solo sailing trip to Ascension Island in the Atlantic. When Rike comes across a sinking ship of refugees, she is quickly torn out of her contented world and must make a momentous decision. Aptly named after the mythological river that separates the living from the dead,
