Image by Ste Murray
ReviewsWinner of Best Actor and Bewley’s Little Gem awards at Dublin Fringe, and nominated Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards.
★★★★★ "A sickeningly fit, tour-de-force performance [...] A beautiful piece of writing, Kostick's simple yet moving tale digs deep while making it all look effortless. Serving up Masculinity 101 with such accessible ease it should be mandatory everywhere gender is taught." – The Arts Review "McAnally and Kostick deliver a knockout blow…Extraordinary… Stark, exhilarating, and cathartic." – The Irish Times "Beautifully played, a hugely athletic and emotionally flawless performance" – The Scotsman |
Fishamble: The New Play Company presents RISE PRODUCTIONS'
FIGHT NIGHT Written by Gavin Kostick Directed by Bryan Burroughs Starring Aonghus Óg McAnally FIGHT NIGHT is a gripping journey charting the comeback of Dan Coyle Jr., a failed amateur boxer from a long line of accomplished fighters. Existing in the shadows of an overbearing father and a brother's Olympic success, Dan's training slips in favour of girls and booze. Minutes before a crucial match, an accident exiles Dan from the ring, splintering the family apart. Years later, after the birth of his own son, his competitive spirit is ignited, and he tentatively takes the first steps on the road to his redemption. One Chance. One Shot. Fight Night. No Excuses. FIGHT NIGHT was written and developed as part of Show in a Bag, an artist development initiative of Dublin Fringe Festival, Fishamble: The New Play Company and the Irish Theatre Institute to resource theatre makers and actors. |
About the production
Duration: 50 minutes, no interval
Age guidance: 14+
Age guidance: 14+
Upcoming Performances
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CastAonghus Óg McAnally
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Meet the Team
Gavin Kostick
Writer |
As Literary Manager at Fishamble, Gavin works with new writers for theatre through a variety of courses, script development workshops and award-winning schemes. Gavin is also an award-winning playwright. His works have been produced nationally and internationally. Favourite works for Fishamble include The Ash Fire, The Flesh Addicts and The End of The Road. Works for other companies include This is What We Sang for Kabosh, Fight Night, The Games People Play and At the Ford for RISE Productions and Gym Swim Party with Danielle Galligan in co-production with The O'Reilly Theatre. He wrote the libretto for the opera The Alma Fetish composed by Raymond Deane, performed at the National Concert Hall. As a performer he performed Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: Complete, a six hour show for Absolut Fringe, Dublin Theatre Festival and The London Festival of Literature at the Southbank. He has recently completed a new version of The Odyssey, supported by Kilkenny Arts Festival.
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Bryan Burroughs
Director |
Bryan trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre at Trinity College Dublin.
Noteworthy performances include My Foot/My Tutor with Articulate Anatomy (Best Male Performance at Dublin Fringe Festival 2004), Barabbas Theatre Company's Johnny Patterson: The Singing Irish Clown (Irish Times Theatre Award Best Supporting Actor 2009) and regularly performs his one man show Beowulf: The Blockbuster which originated as a Show In A Bag and has toured Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Australia, New York and was the number one success of the Edinburgh Fringe 2014 winning the STAGE Award for Acting Excellence. Other notable productions include The President at The Gate Theatre with Olwen Fouèrè and Hugo Weaving, Act Without Words 2 by Samuel Beckett for Company SJ which performed at the Barbican in London and the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. He also regularly performs in a two hander adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with Aaron Monaghan nationally, at The Ark and The Pavilion for Christmas 2023. He played Quasimodo in Angela's Ashes: The Musical in 2017 & 2019 and Lenehan in the returning production of James Joyce's ULYSSES at The Abbey Theatre in Oct 2017 & July 2018 (Nominated for Irish Times Theatre Award Best Ensemble). Other recent productions include TARRY FLYNN with Livin’ Dred, (Nominated for Irish Times Theatre Award Best Ensemble), Beowulf : The Blockbuster, 14 Voices From The Bloodied Field and The Long Christmas Dinner at The Abbey Theatre in Dec 2021 & 2022 (Nominated for Irish Times Theatre Award Best Ensemble). He recently performed at DTF 2023 followed by an Irish Tour of The Boy Who Talked To Dogs by Amy Conroy as a SLINGSBY/Draiocht co-production which played at the 2021 Adelaide Festival and toured Australia for 2022 prior to its Irish 2023 tour. Bryan played DAD in Jody O Neil’s GRACE with Graffiti Theatre for Cork Midsummer Festival, Baboro Arts Festival For Children and in Dublin Theatre Festival. As director Bryan has directed The Whispering Chair for Livin’ Dred in 2022, Fight Night, and The Games People Play for RISE productions written by Gavin Kostick which won Best Actor and the Bewleys Little Gem Award at Dublin Fringe 2010 and Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2013 respectively. As Movement Director recent productions include Considering Matthew Shepard at the NCH, Fishamble’s DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE, Druid's Beauty Queen of Leenane, Umbrella's Glowworm, Fishamble's Inside The GPO, Yew Tree's Alone It Stands, Pat Moylan's Stones In His Pockets, Tarry Flynn & The Skriker at the Lir Academy, BrokenCrow's Levin & Levin, at the Abbey Fool For Love, The Wake and for Second Age Hamlet and Macbeth. For RTE Bryan has appeared on RTE Jr's The Beo Show teaching drama to young children, written four short stories for the Tell Me A Story series, written and performed a Christmas short story for the Cór Na Nóg Christmas Concert and directed Fight Night for RTE's Radio Drama season. He has been cast in Series Two of Tim Burton’s WEDNESDAY for Netflix in 2024. Bryan has taught Physical Theatre at The Lir Academy of Dramatic Art, NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Accademia D’ell Arte, Arezzo, Tuscany. |
Aonghus Óg McAnally
Performer |
Aonghus is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin and also trained with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company in New York. Work while at the Beckett Centre included Mad Forest, The Dandy Dolls, Interludes, and Ubu Roi.
Work at the Abbey Theatre includes Ironbound, Major Barbara, The House, The Burial at Thebes, Big Love, Romeo & Juliet and The Plough and the Stars, which also toured to The Barbican, London as part of the Abbey’s centenary celebrations. Elsewhere, Aonghus has appeared in Big Telly’s online Macbeth and Operation Elsewhere, and Right Up Your Street, Blind (Ryots Productions) Staging the Treaty and Rebel Rebel (Anu Productions), Traitor (That Lot), Run/Don’t Run by Gary Duggan, The Judge’s House, Slattery’s Sago Saga, and The Nose (Performance Corporation), Serious Money (Rough Magic Seeds), Die Fledermaus (Opera Slam), True Enough! (Making Strange), W.B. Yeats’ CúChulainn Cycle (R.H.A. Downstairs, Dublin and Riverside Studios, London), Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo & Juliet (Second Age), Myrmidons (Ouroboros), The Tempest (Corcadorca), One - Healing with Theatre (Pan Pan), An Triail (Aisling Ghéar), Buile an Phíce (Amharclann de hÍde), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Not a Moment to Lose (Torn Curtain). Film credits include the forthcoming Báite, Róise & Frank (Best Ensemble DIFF, Audience Award, SBIFF), The Hurler, Whispers, The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid (Best Feature Documentary IFTA, Best Irish Film, DIFF 2018), The Secret Scripture, When Harvey Met Bob, Happy Ever Afters, P.S. I Love You, The Tiger’s Tail, An Cosc, Pride and Joy, Ella Enchanted, The Nephew, A Basketful of Wallpaper, and An Díog is Faide. Television work includes Penny Dreadful (Showtime), Vikings (History), Murphy’s Law (BBC), Striking Out, Prosperity, Proof, and The Clinic (RTÉ), Seachtar Dearmadta, Corp & Anam, The Running Mate, Rí-Rá and Ros na Rún (TG4). Aonghus also presented three seasons of the online Gaelic games show, UB GAA TV, and twice hosted the Irish Times Theatre Awards ceremony. A prolific voice-over artist, he has performed in numerous radio dramas for RTÉ and Newstalk, and voiced the cartoons Duel Masters, Teen Titans and Legend of the Dragon for TG4. He is also host and lead commentator for OTT Wrestling. He is founder and Artistic Director of Rise Productions, whose debut show Fight Night by Gavin Kostick earned Aonghus the Best Actor award at Dublin Fringe Festival, where it also won the Bewley's Little Gem award. It was subsequently nominated Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards, and adapted as a radio play for RTÉ. It recently completed a 30-venue nationwide tour to mark its 10th Anniversary. Rise again collaborated with Gavin for The Games People Play, which won Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards. At The Ford, the concluding instalment in the trilogy, premiered to a sold out run at Dublin Theatre Festival. Directing credits for Rise Productions include his critically acclaimed nationwide tour of Christian O’Reilly’s The Good Father, Weekend Warrior by Tony Doyle, Kicking All The Boxes by Liz FitzGibbon, which also played the Vaults Festival, London, Cobra’s Quest, a 5-part audio drama for young people, site-specific installation Tear Down The Walls for Project Brand New at Dublin Theatre Festival, and the sell-out music theatre piece Celebrating Christie. Most recently, Aonghus directed site-specific audio drama Bliss for Ryots Productions, the live streamed Clara and the Spideog for Axis Ballymun, and was associate director on Landmark Productions’ Happy Days. Elsewhere, he directed Group House Wedding for Backstage Youth Theatre, A Picture of Us: A (sort of) Musical for The Cup Theatre Company, Changed for Gumption Theatre Company, The Greatest Show on Earth and Dis-played for the Gaiety School of Acting, and both Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth as part of Text Messages. For American College Dublin he directed Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill, Normal by Caitriona Daly, and Murder of Crows by Lee Coffey. He created the year-long Rise Productions: Irish Theatre Podcast project, featuring weekly interviews with leading practitioners, which quickly became the Number 1 Arts podcast on iTunes and is on the syllabus at Yale University, NUI Galway, and Ulster University. It returned in 2017 for a second series, and again topped the podcast charts. Aonghus also produced and directed Rise: Audio Drama, two 10-part seasons of short audio plays, both of which also charted at No.1. |
Colm Maher
Lighting Designer |
Colm is the technical and FOH manager of Bewley’s Café Theatre. He has designed lighting for most of the theatre’s in-house productions and many touring productions. He is also venue and technical manager for Bewley’s Café Theatre during the Dublin Fringe Festival.
In 2021 Colm was the creator and producer of Bewley’s Café Theatre inaugural WALKABOUT season – a series of outdoor performances set in Dublin’s historic parks, as part of keeping theatre alive during the pandemic. The season was nominated for a Special Judge’s Award at the Irish Times Theatre Awards. |
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Eoin Kilkenny
Production Manager |
Eoin is a freelance Project and Production Manager.
He has toured across Ireland and the world with theatre productions from Landmark Productions, Rough Magic Theatre Company, Fishamble: The New Play Company, Cois Ceim Dance, Abbey Theatre and many more. In music, he has worked regularly in the National Concert Hall as well as a variety of artists such as RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Colm Wilkinson, Wallis Bird, Gabby Young and Other Animals. Eoin produced his own events such as Midsummer (a play with songs) in 2019, Irish Tour of This Lime Tree Bower in 2016/7, and Songs in the Key of D from 2013 to 2018. He has worked at some of the best festivals at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh during the Festival Fringe, Galway International Arts Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and London International Festival of Theatre. Eoin was honored to work at some very special events including the State Visit by HM Queen Elizabeth II, Visit of Pope to Dublin in 2018, 1916 centenary celebration and the 2012 Olympic Games. He trained as a production manager with the Rough Magic SEEDs programme, working on their productions in Dublin, Belfast and New York. He is a product of UCD Dramsoc and has completed a MA in Producing at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama |
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Eva Scanlan
Producer |
Eva Scanlan is the Executive Director at Fishamble: The New Play Company. Current and recent producing work includes Taigh/Tŷ/Teach, a trilingual co-production with partners in Scotland and Wales, In Two Minds by Joanne Ryan, Heaven by Eugene O’Brien, Outrage by Deirdre Kinahan, The Treaty by Colin Murphy, Embargo by Deirdre Kinahan, The Alternative by Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney, On Blueberry Hill by Sebastian Barry, Fishamble’s award-winning plays by Pat Kinevane King, Before, Silent, Underneath and Forgotten, and many other productions on tour in Ireland and around the world.
Eva produces The 24 Hour Plays: Dublin at the Abbey Theatre in Ireland (2012-present), in association with the 24 Hour Play Company, New York as a fundraiser for Dublin Youth Theatre. She has worked on The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals at the Gramercy Theatre in New York. Previously, she was Producer at terraNOVA Collective in New York (2012-2015) and has worked on events and conferences at the New School, the Park Avenue Armory, and Madison Square Garden. |
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Laura MacNaughton
Producer |
Laura MacNaughton has worked in the professional arts sector for over twenty years in Theatre, Film and Dance. She has worked primarily as a General Manager, Producer and Programmer. Laura has worked at a Senior Level in multiple arts organisations in Dublin, these include The Gate Theatre, The Dublin Dance Festival and The O'Reilly Theatre. Most recently she was Chief Operating Officer for First Fortnight, the mental health arts festival. She is Co-founder and Creative Producer for Exit Pursued by a Bear, a theatre company for Young Audiences. Their first work Our Little World by Owen Roe and Michele Forbes directed by Louise Lowe (2022) was commissioned in response to the impact of Covid on primary school children. Laura is a classically trained musician and also works with the Drama Department of Belvedere College. Current producing work for Fishamble includes In Two Minds by Joanne Ryan directed by Sarah Jane Scaife, Breaking by Amy Kidd, and the work of Pat Kinevane on tour in Ireland and internationally.
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Jim Culleton
Artistic Director - Fishamble |
Jim Culleton is the Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for which he has directed productions on tour throughout Ireland, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US.
His productions for Fishamble have won Olivier, The Stage, Scotsman Fringe First, and Irish Times Best Director awards. Jim has also directed for the Abbey, the Gaiety, the Belgrade, 7:84 Scotland, Project, Amharclann de hÍde, Tinderbox, Passion Machine, the Ark, Second Age, Dundee Rep, CoisCéim/Crash Ensemble/GIAF, Frontline Defenders, Amnesty International, Little Museum of Dublin, Fighting Words, Soho Theatre, Scripts Festival, and Baptiste Programme. He has directed audio plays for Audible, BBC, RTÉ Radio 1, and RTÉ lyric fm. He has directed for Vessel and APA (Australia), TNL (Canada), Solas Nua, Mosaic, and Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Odyssey (LA), Origin, Irish Arts Center, New Dramatists, and 59E59 (Off-Broadway), as well as for Trafalgar Theatre Productions on the West End, and IAC/Symphony Space on Broadway. Jim has taught for NYU, NUI, GSA, Uversity, the Lir, Villanova, Notre Dame, UM, UMD, JNU, and TCD. |
