24 Nov 2024
Irish Drama in Stockholm
Community Culture Theatre What's on: Stockholm

Irish Drama in Stockholm

The Stockholm-based Irish drama group Spuds and Sill have been putting on plays since 2010 and are now presenting their latest offering called Another Peace on the 17th and 18th of April.

The Spuds and Sill drama group is part of the Swedish Irish Society. So there are naturally quite a bit of Irish people in the group, but some of the actors have hailed from France, Canada and USA. This year’s cast has Irish, American and Swedish actors.

 

Producer Maura Heverin tells no experience is needed to be part of the drama group, and the main thing is that you can speak some English and live in or near Stockholm. There are also many people involved with the play backstage and everybody involved does it for free.

 

– We put on our first production in 2010 in Folkkulturcentrum in Ropsten. It was a comedy and it went down really well. So we kept going. There is good comraderie in the group and while there is a fair bit of work between rehearsals, sticking up posters, making props, and such, people are always glad to be part of it.  Actually, two people who met while acting in this production got married to each other a few years later…

 

– All the plays and pieces the group does are in English and they focus on Irish life, culture and literature. So our audience in Stockholm gets to see the works of Irish playwrights they may not have encountered before. Such as Hugh Leonard or Martin McDonagh. We have also done short dramatic sketches from James Joyce’s Ulysses. 

 

Poster
This spring’s Spuds and Sill production will  premiere a modern drama written by Stockholm-based Irish playwright Niall Balfe, who is also directing the play.

In a small town in rural Ireland, Bernie and Paul Quinn, owners of the local shop and Post Office, are still trying to come to terms with the death, almost a year before, of their son, Stevie.Stevie’s girlfriend Imelda is struggling to escape the confines of the family farm. His best friend, Shane, is dreaming of finding his own way out. Meanwhile, a bitter election campaign is in progress for a seat on the county council, with local girl Lisa Comerford battling to upset the status quo.

Another Peace follows their fortunes as they try to make their peace with life in modern-day Ireland.

 

There will be three performances of the play on the 17th and 18th of April at Kulturhuset in Skärpnäck. Admission is 150kr and members of the Swedish Irish Society get a discount.

 

 

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