News & Events

Working with our brilliant partners at Kilkenny Arts Festival, we were thrilled to bring live performances to audiences at the Watergate Theatre this August with our world premiere of Solar Bones. Based on the award-winning novel by Mike McCormack, Solar Bones was adapted by Michael West, directed by Lynne Parker and starred the fantastic Stanley Townsend as … Continued

In case you missed it, you can listen back to director Lynne Parker and actor Stanley Townsend on the RTE player as they talk all things Solar Bones.

Rough Magic is delighted to announce the World Premiere of Solar Bones by Mike McCormack in an adaptation by Michael West. In partnership with Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Watergate Theatre.

We are thrilled for Rough Magicians Brian Doherty and Philip Connaughton who were winners at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards this year.

Brian Doherty won Best Actor for his performances as Agamemnon in Rough Magic’s Hecuba and as Dog in Red Kettle Theatre Company’s The Red Iron.

Congratulations also to Philip Connaughton who was awarded Best Movement Direction for his work on Rough Magic’s Much Ado About Nothing which premiered in Kilkenny Arts Festival before going on a nationwide tour of Ireland.

We are excited to announce the publication by Methuen of Rough Magic Theatre Company – New Irish Plays and Adaptations 2010-2018. Edited and with an introduction by Patrick Lonergan, Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway, with a foreword from Booker Prize-winning novelist Anne Enright – this book is an exciting snapshot of contemporary … Continued

In Rough Magic’s first autumn season in 1984, I was cast as Dull Gret in Top Girls by Caryl Churchill. I wore a medieval soldier’s breastplate, which was nice. The character was based on the mad figure of a woman invading hell, as painted by Breugel the Elder. The role required me to sit on … Continued

Highlights from the archives of Rough Magic, will be on display in the Long Room, Trinity until 15 January 2020.

Watch playwright Marina Carr explain what inspired her to write Hecuba, as actor Aislín McGuckin takes time out of rehearsals to describe what it’s like to play the fabled Queen of Troy. Get insights into Rough Magic’s production of Hecuba in this Q&A with director Lynne Parker. Hecuba will be performed as part of the Dublin … Continued

We are thrilled to announce our talented cast for the Irish premiere of Hecuba by Marina Carr. For this production, Rough Magic brings together some of the country’s most celebrated actors – who have already given us stellar performances – with a new generation of Ireland’s most exciting emerging talent; in a classic Rough Magic … Continued

Our cast are in the final week of rehearsals for our production of Much Ado About Nothing, soon to be opening under the stars at Kilkenny Arts Festival. In a rare break, director Ronan Phelan sat down for this interview to talk about the gender-swapping casting of Clare Barrett, setting the play in a mobile … Continued