A celebration of Billy Roche – month-long programme of events in honour of Wexford playwright
Billy Roche.
Eoin Colfer
Gary Lydon in a scene with Colin Farrell on the set of the Banshees of Inisherin.
Wexford actor Dermot Murphy shooting some pool in preperation of Billy Roche's 'A Handful of Stars'
One of Ireland’s most influential playwrights over the last 40 years will be the focus of a month-long celebration in Wexford this June.
Four Rivers Theatre Company and Wexford Arts Centre are joining forces to celebrate the works of Wexford’s own Billy Roche with an enormous programme of events which will bring together leading figures of theatre and written word.
Among the events planned is a two-week run of ‘A Handful of Stars’ – the first in Roche's revered ‘Wexford Trilogy’ of plays. Among the cast for this eagerly anticipated production are Dermot Murphy (who played Bob Geldof in the recent Queen biopic) and Gary Lydon (The Banshees of Inisherin and The Guard) both of whom hail from Wexford. The engagement of Gary and Dermot brings ‘A Handful of Stars’ full circle: Dermot’s character Jimmy Brady was first played by Gary 35 years ago.
Readings of the other two plays in Roche’s Wexford Trilogy – Poor Beast in the Rain and The Belfry – are also due to take place with full Wexford casts.
A free interview with world famous author Eoin Colfer at Wexford Library will also take place, where the Artemis Fowl creator will talk about the far-reaching influence of Billy Roche’s body of work.
Also on the cards is an afternoon with Billy Roche in conversation with Conall Morrison, chaired by Tom Mooney and a Wexford Trilogy Walking Tour.
Full programme of events
1: A Handful of Stars
“The language of Billy Roche’s plays is a living language, his dialogue is full of the spice of speech, his ear for the way people talk is impeccable.” – Colm Toibin
The first play in Billy Roche’s the Wexford Trilogy, A Handful of Stars, explores how thwarted ambitions can both destroy dreams and shape character in small town Ireland.
When A Handful of Stars was staged at The Bush Theatre, London in 1988, it was described by The Guardian as “one of the year’s great theatre events”. The Wexford Trilogy at The Bush subsequently helped launch the careers of many Irish actors including Liam Cunningham, Dervla Kirwan, Aidan Gillen and Gary Lydon.
Gary Lydon in a scene with Colin Farrell on the set of the Banshees of Inisherin.
In June 2024, Lydon once again appears in what is the first professional revival of A Handful of Stars at Wexford Arts Centre, directed by Conall Morrison. This Four Rivers production will run at Wexford Arts Centre (June 6-16) and the Pavilion, Dun Laoghaire, (June 18-22).
In the role made famous by Gary, Jimmy Brady will be played by another Wexford actor, Dermot Murphy (The Drummer and the Keeper, Raw) who was recently seen in cinemas worldwide as Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof in the Queen Biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.
In A Handful of Stars, Brady is a rebel without a cause, a frustrated chancer in the local snooker hall rebelling against day to day banality.
Gary and Dermot will be joined by a star-studded cast of Michael Power (Vikings, The Game of Thrones), John Olohan (Lies We Tell, Father Ted), Tiernan Messitt-Greene (Ghosted, Harry Wild), Brian Doherty (Resistance, The Woman in the Wall) and Éilish McLaughlin (Rebecca’s Boyfriend).
Wexford actor Dermot Murphy shooting some pool in preperation of Billy Roche's 'A Handful of Stars'
2: Billy Roche – A Celebration
Participating in Wexford Art Centre’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2024, Four Rivers will simultaneously celebrate the career of Billy Roche – playwright, novelist, actor and singer – with public interviews, readings from the Arts Centre stage of the other Wexford Trilogy plays – Poor Beast in the Rain and Belfry – directed by Katie McCann, live music, a Wexford Trilogy Guided Tour through the streets of the town, and a panel discussion including Billy Roche and Conall Morrison, moderated by Tom Mooney. The two readings at Wexford Arts Centre will feature an all-Wexford cast, including Garrett Lombard and Barry Barnes.
Programme:
Read more
3 Nolan and Roche plays highlight ff Four Rivers 2024 programme
Four Rivers Theatre Company, has announced a busy programme for 2024 which will include a production of A Handful of Stars by Billy Roche in Wexford and Dun Laoghaire, a new play by Jim Nolan in Waterford, Castel Gandolfo (starring Carrie Crowley), a reading of a new play by Eddie Rowe and a revival, at Christmas, of the company’s critically acclaimed staged reading of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.
2024 marks the 35th anniversary of the first professional production of A Handful of Stars, the first play in Billy Roche’s famous Wexford Trilogy, which also includes Poor Beast in the Rain and Belfry.
Directed by Conall Morrison and designed by Liam Doona, with lighting by Paul Keogan and costumes by Jeni Roddy, A Handful of Stars is coming home to Wexford in June with a fortnight run at Wexford Arts Centre.
As part of the Arts Centre’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2024, Four Rivers will simultaneously celebrate the career of Billy Roche – playwright, novelist, actor and singer -with public interviews, an exhibition of the playwright’s memorabilia, readings of Poor Beast in the Rain and Belfry with an all Wexford cast, The Wexford Trilogy Walking Tour and a panel discussion including Billy Roche and Conall Morrison, moderated by Tom Mooney.
Four Rivers will also conduct a public interview at Wexford Library with Eoin Colfer who will discuss the influence of Billy Roche in the early days of his career.
Set over two days in the back garden of a decaying terraced house in Waterford's inner city, Jim Nolan’s new play Castel Gandolfo revolves around the cataclysmic exposure – and radically conflicting recollections - of a family’s deepest and most secret wounds.
Directed by Ben Barnes, Four Rivers will premiere Castel Gandolfo at Garter Lane, Waterford for a twelve night run in October. The play marks Ben’s sixth collaboration with Jim: Castel Gandolfo is designed by Dermot Quinn, lighting by John Comiskey and costumes by Jeni Roddy.
In December Four Rivers will revive its highly successful staged reading of the Claire Keegan novel Small Things Like These, appearing at Wexford Arts Centre, Garter Lane, Pavilion, Mermaid, Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, and the Irish Cultural Centre in London.*
Short-listed for the Booker Prize in 2022, Small Things Like These is set in Co. Wexford town in the 1980s in the run up to Christmas: as coal merchant Bill Furlong does his rounds, he discovers a girl locked away in terrible conditions in the local convent. Unlike the silent majority, he decides to do something about it.
Four Rivers, with its dramaturg, Louise Stephens, is also currently working on new plays with Wexford writers, Katie Mc Cann, Alison Martin, Eoghan Rua Finn and Megan O Malley with a view to production in 2025-26. Additional plans for 2025 include a professional/community project at the National Opera House.
Four Rivers is a theatre company for the South East of Ireland. It has been established to bring new and classic plays to audiences in the region and to give voice to the creative communities of Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Carlow. The company is led by Wexford native, Ben Barnes, who is a former artistic director of the Abbey Theatre.
In 2024, Four Rivers premiered Amongst Men by Eoghan Rua Finn at Wexford Arts Centre, which also ran at Theatre Royal, Waterford and Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, and premiered The Last Stand by Dominic Palmer at Wexford Arts Centre. Four Rivers co-produced the Irish premiere of Isla by Tim Price at the Civic Theatre and produced the first staged adaptation of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, at Wexford Arts Centre, Pavilion, Dun Laoghaire, Mermaid, Bray and St. Michael’s Theatre, New Ross.
Eoin Colfer
4 Eoin Colfer on the influence of Billy Roche
An evening with Eoin Colfer at Wexford Library in which he will discuss the influence of Billy Roche is guaranteed to be one of the highlights of June's celebrations. This free event, which takes place in Wexford Library on June 4 at 7pm, will hear from Colfer, who once said of Roche’s ‘Tumbling Down’: “A beautifully written true life fairy tale… the reason I’m a writer.”
Eoin was born in Wexford in 1965, where he and his four brothers were brought up by his father (a primary school teacher, historian and artist of note) and mother (a drama teacher).
His first book, Benny and Omar, was published in 1998, based on his experiences in Tunisia; it has since been translated into many languages. In 2001 the first Artemis Fowl book was published and he was able to resign from teaching and concentrate fully on writing.
Since then, Artemis Fowl, which was named the public’s favourite Puffin Modern Classic of all time, has sold in excess of 25 million copies and has been translated into 40 languages. There are eight books in the series, alongside numerous companion books, limited edition releases, audiobooks and digital releases.
In 2019, a brand new spin-off series called The Fowl Twins was released by Disney Books (US) and HarperCollins (UK). This new trilogy features Artemis Fowl’s younger brothers Myles and Beckett Fowl and follows their own exciting adventures as they outsmart their opponents, make contact with the Fairy world and get themselves into all sorts of trouble.
An Artemis Fowl movie was directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh and stars Ferdia Shaw (Artemis Fowl), Lara McDonnell (Holly Short), Josh Gad (Mulch Diggums), Nonso Anozie (Domovoi Butler), Dame Judy Dench (Commander Root), Colin Farrell (Artemis Fowl Sr.) and more.
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