Shady Ladies (theatre preview)

- Shady Ladies by Mary Halpin. Theatre Upstairs at the Globe, Clifton Road, Exeter. Friday May 30 at 7.30pm, Saturday May 31 at 7pm, Sunday June 1 at 3.30pm
posted by Cptn

You get the feeling that Mary Halpin is playing with prejudice with her Shady Ladies, which is on at the Theatre Upstairs, at the Globe, Exeter on Friday, Saturday, Sunday May 30, and 31 and June 1.

The play was first performed at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1988 and Halpin herself has been a lead writer for Ireland’s premiere soap Fair City

And there are elements of soap (sans froth) in the all-female Shady Ladies story, actress Niamh is put in a psychiatric hospital by her husband after the collapse of their marriage, where she’s visited by a gaggle of historic figures.

“The women came, I suppose, from a sense that history was always very much ‘his’ story rather than hers, and from a frustration I’d have when reading Irish history at the lack of female representation in the history books,” says Mary. “I had to search to find stories about women – they were there, just not very prominently and I dramatised the women I found interesting or relevant to Niamh.”

It’s an all-women cast, with a rare outing for the Theatre Upstairs’ artistic director Madeleine Vose taking on six roles, and she’s joined on stage by Rebecca Crookshank. The team, including Natasha Buckley, have been working with the playwright and you can catch the progress on the theatre’s website.

For box office call 01392 461623

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