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.
Future Projects
Roles in Dublin Lyric Players productions
Dublin Lyric has ideas for a number of projects which it is interested in bringing to the stage at some point in the future.
Every project requires the skills of many people on and off stage. The approach taken to realising performances, such as those outlined below and in the Productions section of this website, is a collaboration of the talents of actors and the creative team behind them.
Each project is different and sometimes needs the participation of a few or many people. Some productions call for the involvement of those with a special interest, knowledge or expertise in the subject or type of drama.
To broaden the range of projects that the group can consider, we are interested in getting to know as wide a group of people as possible, who share our interest in presenting high quality productions of great plays.
If you are interested in participating in a future Dublin Lyric Players production, please send an email to Conor O'Malley at conoromalley11 @ gmail.com with a copy of your CV giving details of your area of interest.
Two plays in Five Lamps Festival - April 2010
'Within The Gates' & 'Pull Down a Horseman'
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!"
In 'Pull Down a Horseman', Eugene McCabe explores two central characters in the Easter 1916 Rising, James Connolly and Patrick Pearse.
The play 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. Go to the Productions page for more on these and other Dublin Lyric presentations.