Theatre for One: Made in Cork review – One actor, one audience member and a life unravelling
Theatre for One: Made in Cork
Emmet Place, Cork
★★★★☆
An assistant in a red jumpsuit ushers me into a black container on the plaza in front of
Cork Opera House
. I step into a tiny space about the size of a toilet cubicle and styled like a peep-show booth: inbuilt seat, red plush walls, stage lights.
The door shuts behind me. Then a panel slides open to reveal a woman in tears. She begins to berate me for dumping her. I have been a total cad – that much is clear – and I begin to feel genuinely sorry.
This is It's Not You, a short play by
Cónal Creedon
, performed with striking emotional realism by Áine Ní Laoghaire as part of Theatre for One: Made in Cork.
Conceived by the theatremaker Christine Jones, the format is simple but powerful: six five-minute plays, each written for a one-audience-member-at-a-time booth, performed in succession throughout the day (and free to watch: you just join the queue).
READ MORE
This 2025 edition, presented by
Landmark Productions
and
Octopus Theatricals
in association with
Cork Midsummer Festival
and Cork Opera House, features new work by six writers with strong Cork ties: Creedon, Katie Holly, John McCarthy, Michael John McCarthy,
Gina Moxley
and Louise O'Neill.
Directed by Julie Kelleher and Eoghan Carrick, the experience is confronting – and that's its strength. The extreme proximity of the performer, the unwavering eye contact and the impossibility of leaving demand emotional engagement. These are characters unravelling, opening the mess of their private lives to you; it's theatre as confessional.
Theatre for One: Made in Cork – Tommy Harris in Amibition, by Katie Holly. Photograph: Jed Niezgoda
Theatre for One: Made in Cork – George Hanover in The Wedding, by Louise O'Neill. Photograph: Jed Niezgoda
In Katie Holly's Ambition, a depressed magician (Tommy Harris) fumbles through tricks during a job interview for a corporate party. It's clear how much he needs this gig. Even his rabbit, he suspects, looks at him with contempt, just as his girlfriend did – before she dumped him.
In
Louise O'Neill
's The Wedding, George Hanover plays a mother in a changing room, navigating layers of guilt and love as she searches for a dress to wear to her daughter's big day.
Theatre for One is powerfully transporting; lightning-quick and raw. It leaves an emotional after-image that lingers as you step out of the booth and back into the plaza, back into the real world.
Theatre for One: Made in Cork runs daily, except for Monday, June 16th, until Sunday, June 22nd, as part of
Cork Midsummer Festival
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
I'm always telling Sorcha to tone down the southside when we come out to Bray but she never listens
I'm like, 'Bray?' And Sorcha's there, 'Yes, Ross – Bray!' I'm like, 'But why do we have to go to Bray?' sounding like a spoiled child – in other words, one of ours. She slows down as we're approaching the Loughlinstown roundabout. For a second or two, I consider opening the front passenger door and throwing myself out on to the road. But, at the vital moment, I make the fatal mistake of hesitating and suddenly we're through the thing and heading south at one hundred K's per hour. READ MORE Sorcha's like, 'We're going to see my friend, Claire–' I'm there, 'Claire from Bray of all places?' 'Yes, Ross, Claire from Bray of all places.' 'And will he be there?' – he being her husband, Garret, who I despise more than anyone else in the world and not just because he has zero interest in rugby. Sorcha goes, 'I've been promising for – oh my God – ages to pop out to see this new coffee shop of theirs.' I'm like, 'Another one? So what's the gimmick this time?' She goes, 'All the staff are ex-offenders.' I'm there, 'Did you just say all the staff are sex offenders?' ' Ex -offenders, Ross. All the staff are ex -offenders. And it's not a gimmick.' 'It's a definite gimmick.' 'Ross, they're offering an opportunity to people who – yeah, no – made mistakes in their lives and want to get back on the right road.' 'I'd say they're dirt cheap to hire as well.' 'That's a horrible thing to say. And can I just remind you that your actual father is an ex-offender?' 'It still sounds like you're saying sex offender. I think it must be your invisible braces.' You're not only serving coffee, you're serving hope — Sorcha Anyway, 10 minutes later, we're walking through the front door of what was, until very recently, Wheat Bray Love, but is now called Second Shot Roasters. Garret is wearing a bow-tie and one of those hipster moustaches with the ends twisted upwards that seems to say, 'Please punch me very hord in the face', and I end up having to put my hands in my pockets just to keep the porty polite. He goes, 'Sorcha, how the hell are you?' because he's such a wannabe. Greystones. I rest my case. He says fock-all to me, but he makes a big point of looking at the crest on my Leinster training tee and sort of, like, smirking to himself. I'm there, 'Have you got a problem, Dude?' And he goes, 'One of us has. Claire's over there, Sorcha. She's training in our new barista.' So we tip over to where Claire – yeah, no – is showing some random woman how to use the coffee machine. The woman – I'm just going to come out and say it – looks rougher than a sandpaper condom and she just, like, glowers at Sorcha while her and Claire do the whole, like, air-kissing thing. Sorcha goes, 'Oh my God, this place is amazing!' Claire's like, 'Thank you.' 'I mean, you're not only serving coffee,' Sorcha goes, 'you're serving hope,' and I'm thinking that's definitely a line she came up with in the cor. While this conversation is taking place, the woman making the coffee is just, like, glowering at Sorcha. I'm always telling her to maybe tone down the southside when we come out here but she never listens. At the top of her voice, she's like, 'So how's Scout getting on in Vancouver?' and you can see not only the staff but the customers looking over as if to say, 'Who the hell does this one think she is?' She goes, 'Claire's niece is working in Canada for the summer, Ross.' Claire's there, 'Yeah, no one's going to the States this year because of the whole, like, Trump thing? She's absolutely loving Canada.' Sorcha's like, 'Is it safe over there? I always say to Honor, if you ever find yourself in a strange place and you feel unsafe, just remember: FTL.' Claire goes, 'What's FTL?' And I'm like, 'Sorcha, maybe this isn't the right place for this conversation,' because the woman making the coffee is looking at her like she wants to take that milk thermometer she's holding and stick it up her focking nose. 'FTL,' Sorcha goes, 'stands for Find the Lululemon. Because their location people – oh my God – really, like, do their homework ? I always remind my daughter, no matter what city you're in, the Lululemon will always be on the best street. Nothing bad ever happens near a Lululemon.' Your daughter got 200 hours of community service. I got six months in prison – for stealing three pairs of yoga pants — Nicola, barista and ex-offender That's when she suddenly storts patting the top of her head, going, 'My sunglasses! Oh my God, where are my sunglasses?' And the woman making the coffees is like, 'Why did you look at me when you said that?' Sorcha's there, 'I didn't look at you.' She actually did look at her, but it was – and this is possibly a made-up word – an unconscience thing? 'I remember you,' the woman goes, then she turns and looks at me. 'And I remember you as well.' Jesus, I'm thinking – has she had the pleasure of my –. 'I was in court,' she goes, 'the same day as your daughter.' Yeah, no, I keep forgetting that Honor – in her own way – is sort of, like, an ex-offender herself ? Sorcha looks around her – again, it's unconscience – to see who might be listening. 'She caused criminal damage to 200 SUVs,' the woman goes. I'm there, 'It was actually only 150?' because I've always been my daughter's biggest defender. Sorcha goes, 'Also, her crimes were sort of, like, an environmental protest ?' 'Sort of, like, an environmental protest ?' the woman goes, doing a pretty good impression – it has to be said – of my wife. Claire's there, 'Nicola, can I remind you that you're only, like, two days into your six-month probation here?' 'And what sentence did she get?' this – like she said – Nicola one goes. I'm like, '200 hours of community service,' ever the proud dad, 'which she completed.' Nicola's there, 'Well, I got six months in prison – for stealing three pairs of yoga pants.' Sorcha looks away. She doesn't want to hear what's coming next. 'Yes,' the woman goes, 'from a Lululemon.' Sorcha's there, 'Like I said, my daughter was actually attempting to save the planet. Claire, it was lovely to catch up with you. We're going to head off.' I'm there, 'Are we not even getting coffees?' Nicola goes, 'You sanctimonious southside–' Claire's like, 'Okay, that's a verbal warning.' But Nicola there, '–cow! And, by the way, your sunglasses are in your shirt pocket.'
Irish Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
What time and TV channel is Callum Walsh v Elias Espadas on today?
Cork boxer Callum Walsh is hoping to edge ever closer to a World title fight as he takes on Elias Espadas in California tonight. Backed by UFC boss Dana White, Walsh now boasts a 13-0 professional record and is now endging closer to a world title fight. It has been an interesting career trajectory for the talented Rebel, with his coaching team preaching patience when it comes to title opportunities despite the hype surrounding Walsh. The 24-year-old headlined a 3Arena bout last year and has made no secret of wanting to bring big-time boxing back to his hometown at some point. But Walsh, who is based stateside, returns to action tonight in California. Here is everything you need to know about the bout. The fight takes place at Chumash Casino in California. The main card starts at 3 a.m. Irish time, with Walsh set to the main event a couple of hours later. UFC Fight Pass will show the card. Monthly passes are €9.99 or €89.99 for the year. Callum Walsh 1/16 Draw 25/1 Elias Espadas 8/1
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
Collected Poems by Gerard Fanning: Elliptical, at times cryptic works built on mood and atmosphere
Collected Poems Author : Gerard Fanning ISBN-13 : 978-1943667154 Publisher : Wake Forest University Press Guideline Price : £19.99 I hadn't come across the late Gerard Fanning's work before encountering it whole, as it were, in the shape of this Collected Poems. It comes with helpful apparatus – a foreword by Gerald Dawe, an afterword by Colm Tóibín – a contemporary and friend of Fanning's at UCD – and an interview with Fanning and Conor O'Callaghan. All of these angles are helpful, perhaps even essential, to the new reader of his writing. These poems are elliptical, at times cryptic; they mostly don't so much perform as talk quietly into their shirt sleeves, operating in an air of manila envelopes and uncompromisingly referential Europhilia; they're lit by a sort of coastal glare, and often feel as if they're squinting under exposed scrutiny. Tóibín rightly says that poetry wasn't – for Fanning – Auden's 'memorable speech', and these are poems built on mood, atmospheres – his avowed Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon admiration hint at his wide range of references, from film and literature to something more playfully esoteric, more guardedly private and coded. He was a government man, a life of 'benign Glengarry Glen Ross', in his own words; on the road, and on the right side of intrusion. On the page, too. If the early work from the 1990s has an abiding flavour it's one of withdrawal and departure, a sort of whistling chilliness, looking for – as per one of the best of his early poems An Evening in Booterstown – 'a pale permanence'. READ MORE He has something of Tom Waits to his titles – often proper names, recognisable or otherwise, are thrown around; we're located but we're left out a little too – this is a poetry of overhearing, eschewing careless talk, or the loose lip. [ From the archive: Poet and Rooney Prize winner Gerard Fanning dies Opens in new window ] At times in the first books he can exclude us entirely – one feels the need to ask for a primer, or Rosetta Stone, for some of his piled-up enigmas, but later he seems to relax into a more open, approachable clarity. Rhyme comes in, but by Slip Road his language as a whole is, largely, more open, more parseable – poems like These Days allying a new clarity to an encroaching sense of creeping dread, spotlighting a melancholy undertow that was always there, tidal like so many of his landscapes – 'I will be sent for, soon, at night'.
