The Players
In April 2005 Dublin Lyric Players was formed around a group of people who shared an interest in presenting Irish poetic drama. From that beginning, the group has grown and with it the range of works undertaken.
The full story of Dublin Lyric Players, what it's about, where it came from and who is behind it is told on the About page.
The Productions
The first plays performed by the group were by the Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). In all, eleven of his plays were produced by Dublin Lyric Players in its first four years. Many of these were works that are performed infrequently or very rarely.
The repertoire has not been confined to Yeats. A full list of the works presented by Dublin Lyric Players is on the Productions page.
Newsletter Mailing List
If you wish to be informed about forthcoming shows, visit our Mailing List page where you can add your email address. Should your address change, that page also allows you to remove the old and add the new email address.
The story behind this play presented in 'The Atrium' at the headquarters of the Office of Public Works 51, St Stephen's Green, Dublin from Monday 13 to Friday 17 July 2009 and pictures taken at one of the performances are on a special 'Galileo' page within the Productions page.
Have a look and see why Galileo caused such a storm 400 years ago with this telescope!
Lecture at the Sean O'Casey Summer School
A lecture entitled, 'From Printed Page to Performance – Sean O'Casey's Within the Gates' by Dr. Conor O'Malley, was presented at the Open University of Ireland 'Sean O'Casey Summer School' on Saturday 22 May 2010.
The lecture covered the process of bringing the Dublin Lyric Players production of 'Within the Gates' to the Larkin Room, Liberty Hall in April 2010.
A copy of the lecture is available here as a PDF file.
Two plays performed in Five Lamps Festival
O'Casey's 'Within The Gates' - Liberty Hall, April 2010
As part of the Five Lamps Festival in Dublin, Dublin Lyric Players presented 'Within the Gates' by Sean O’Casey. It is an intriguing, experimental and expressionist play, written while the author was still in his most recognisably creative phase, during the late 1920s.
The title comes from the location of the action - around Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park - during the four Seasons of the year. The life of a Young Woman is gradually unfolded through her inter-actions with the visitors to the Park, and as she stumbles through the seasons of her own life. O’Casey paints the broadest of human canvases in bold colours. What he portrays is the bitter, but fulsome life of a feisty, impressionable and vulnerable girl who becomes transformed during the Seasons from a girl to a woman, later to re-emerge as an archetypal representative of humanity. The renowned dramatic critic George Sean Nathan wrote that the play “…is one of the most beautiful plays I have read in a very long, long time. It has an overwhelming beauty.” The playwright Eugene O’Neill corroborated that “It is a splendid piece of work… I was especially moved – greenly envious, I confess – by its rare and sensitive poetical beauty. I wish to God I could write like that!”
The performances were from Sunday 25 April to Saturday 1 May in the Larkin Room, Liberty Hall at 7:30pm each evening.
Visit the Productions page for more information, pictures and download links for audio recordings made at one of the performances.
'Pull Down A Horseman' - lunchtime in Liberty Hall, April 2010
Also as part of the Five Lamps Festival, 'Pull Down a Horseman' by Eugene McCabe was performed at lunchtime from Monday 26 April to Saturday 1 May in the Connolly Room, Liberty Hall at 1:15pm each day.
In this play, Eugene McCabe, probably best known for his play 'The King of the Castle', takes an interesting look at two central figures in the Easter 1916 Rising - James Connolly and Patrick Pearse.
'Pull Down a Horseman' is about a private meeting between Pearse (played by Declan Brennan) and Connolly (played by Alan Carey) in January 1916 where they discuss, debate, argue and verbally joust with one another over whether and when to go ahead with the Rising. They were two very different characters - intellectually well matched, but with very different political philosophies and perspectives.
While the play is based on historical research, no one knows for certain what happened at this meeting.