Lights Out

A new play by Hannah Mc Niven

What happens when the thing you love most is also the thing that destroys you? Dawn is a boxer. It is the only profession she has ever known. Escaping poverty, she fights to reach the pinnacle of her sport.

Her ascent appears to be unstoppable until, on a night out, a hand on her shoulder dredges up memories of betrayal and violation. And she loses control. Boxing saves her life. Yet with one punch life, as she knows it, is over. Enter Sorensen, a psychologist with unorthodox methods who is prepared to explore even the most hopeless of cases. And present Dawn with the most challenging opponent of her life so far.

Emerging from The Wexford Playwright Workshop\

Lights Out is a new play by Wexford novelist and playwright, Hannah Mc Niven. It emerged from the Wexford Playwright Workshop hosted by the Wexford Arts Centre and supported by Wexford County Council and the Arts Council. The play details the sometimes searing encounters between a former boxer, Dawn and her unconventional psychologist, Sorensen and is directed by Four Rivers Artistic Director, Ben Barnes.

Dawn: Sadhbh Malin
Sorensen: Anthony Brophy

Design and Lighting: John Comiskey
Dramaturgy: Louise Stephens
Movement Direction: Libby Seward
Costume Supervision: Frances Whyte
Sound: Ollie Dempsey

Premiere at Wexford Arts Centre

The play will premiere at Wexford Arts Centre as part of the 2022 Wexford Festival Opera programme and is the first in a series of new plays from South East writers to be staged by Four Rivers.

Upcoming Productions

Carrie Crowley to star in new Jim Nolan play

Booking has now opened for the premiere in October of Four Rivers’ Castel Gandolfo by Jim Nolan (Moonshine, The Salvage Shop) at Garter Lane Arts Centre. It is directed by Ben Barnes (Artistic Director of Four Rivers).
The play revolves around the cataclysmic exposure of a Waterford family’s deepest and most secret wounds and features Carrie Crowley, Michael Power, Garrett Lombard, Sarah Madigan and Elishka Lane.
Set over two days in the backyard of the eponymous Castel Gandolfo, a decaying terraced house in Waterford’s inner city, Stephen Callaghan is dying and the frail threads that bind his family are fast unravelling. His daughter, Rose, is about to lose her job; his son, Tony, is losing the race to restore his father’s vintage car and his granddaughter, Stella, is about to swap a law degree for a start in the local chipper. As if that wasn’t enough, Stephen’s ex-wife, the formidable Dolly, is back in town. The shock return of another exile threatens to reveal the truth behind a thirty-year-old façade.
The play will preview at Garter Lane on Thursday, October 3rd and open on Friday, October 4th, running until Saturday October 19th.

Castel Gandolfo by Jim Nolan

Last November, a reading of Jim Nolan’s new play, Castel Gandolfo was held at the National Opera House. The work has gone through several drafts and the reading was held to identify any areas that need further tweaking ahead of the production of the play which will be staged in October at Garter Lane Waterford. Ben Barnes will direct with designs by Dermot Quinn (set), John Comiskey (lighting), Jeni Roddy (costume) and Jamie Beamish (sound). Both Jim Nolan and Ben Barnes were in attendance at the reading and the reading cast were – Anna Healy, Brian Doherty, Anthony Brophy, Catherine Walker and Elishka Lane. The cast of Carrie Crowley, Michael Power, Garrett Lombard, Sarah Madigan and Elishka Lane are busy rehearsing.