Image by Leo Byrne and Publicis.
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Fishamble: The New Play Company presents
In Two MindsWritten by Joanne Ryan
Directed by Sarah Jane Scaife "There were thousands of them. They were so beautiful, blue, almost purple, and everywhere around me. I didn’t know you had those stars here as well!”
Explored through the dynamic of a mother-daughter relationship, In Two Minds is deeply personal, inventive, funny and life-affirming. As a new work it plays with both the fascinating allure and the challenges of living with bipolar disorder. From the stellar writer Joanne Ryan (Lustrum Award winner) and director Sarah Jane Scaife (Beckett sa Chreig: Laethanta Sona) comes a tale of the adult child and parent sharing the same home. Pom Boyd (The Dry) and Karen McCartney (A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings) perform a delicate piece grappling with mental health, love and humanity. In Two Minds finds insight in the darkness, humour in the pain and tenderness in difficult family dynamics.
In Two Minds had its World Premiere in October 2023 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. This run is part of the Culture Ireland Edinburgh Showcase.
WINNER Best New Play at the Green Room Awards NOMINATED Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award 2024 ‘Quietly deft direction…clever, intuitive design…script and performances take flight in a production that inventively exposes the light and dark, the exhilaration and frustrations of living with bipolar disorder’ - ★★★★ Irish Times ‘Touching work about mental illness and its impacts…full of heartfelt dignity…Mental illness is frequently depicted on stage, but it often seems too full of artifice to be fully convincing, whereas this moving work feels utterly authentic’ -Irish Independent ‘It succeeds excellently…career-defining performance’ -Sunday Independent ‘Vivid, heartfelt and sometimes beautiful… stunning performance’ - ★★★★ The Scotsman ‘It’s for everyone…powerful’ - ★★★★★ British Theatre Guide ‘Moving and ultimately uplifting‘ - ★★★★ Across the Arts ‘Brilliantly performed’ - The Guardian |
Upcoming Performances
About the Production
Duration: 80 minutes.
Age guidance: 14+
In Two Minds contains themes and references that some may find distressing. Please expand below for more details.
Age guidance: 14+
In Two Minds contains themes and references that some may find distressing. Please expand below for more details.
Creative TeamWritten by Joanne Ryan
Directed by Sarah Jane Scaife Set Design Alyson Cummins Lighting Design Kevin Smith Costume Design Sinead Cuthbert Music and Sound Design Rob Moloney Dramaturg Gavin Kostick |
Production Team
Producer Laura MacNaughton
Production Manager Eoin Kilkenny Assistant Production Manager Daire Ó Muirí Stage Manager Steph Ryan & Abi Morris (Edinburgh) Shanna Allison (NYC) Chief LX Archer Bradshaw (NYC) Staging Crew Damien Woods Production Coordinator Ronan Carey Marketing Allie Whelan & Rachel Foran PR O’Doherty Communications |
CastPom Boyd as Mother
Karen McCartney as Daughter |
Meet The Team
Joanne Ryan
Writer |
Joanne is an award-winning Limerick-based theatre artist, playwright and performer. Her critically acclaimed debut solo show Eggsistentialism premiered in Belltable and Dublin Fringe in 2016, was part of Culture Ireland’s 2017 Edinburgh Showcase and has since toured extensively with runs in London, Liverpool, Cyprus, Malaysia and Australia. Eggsistentialism has won the Lustrum Award for Best Festival Moment at Edinburgh Fringe, The Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready Award, The Sydney Fringe Critics’ Pick Award and was nominated for Best Performance at Melbourne Fringe. In 2018 it won the Stroller’s Network Touring Award leading to a 10-venue national tour in November 2019. In 2021 it was adapted for radio for RTÉ Drama on One.
Joanne is currently an Artist-in-Residence in Ormston House and Theatre Artist in Residence in Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable. She was Limerick’s PLATFORM 31 artist in 2022 and was a Six-in-the-Attic artist at Irish Theatre Institute in 2021. |
Sarah Jane Scaife
Director |
Sarah Jane Scaife, Artistic Director of Company SJ, Assistant Professor Trinity College Dublin, has spent many years exploring the theatre and prose of Samuel Beckett both nationally and internationally. She has conducted two main projects: Beckett in Asia (2002-2006) where she directed and researched with actors in Georgia, Mongolia, India, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Greece; Beckett in the City (2009-2016) which set out to place side-by-side the socio-historic wounds of Ireland’s past with the current social tensions within the city itself. She directed Beckett’s prose piece Company for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2018; Beckett sa Chreig: Laethanta Sona for GIAF and DTF in 2021. She is currently working on a new piece, Beckett sa Chreig: Fizzles 4 & Ní Mé, in both English and Irish for the GIAF and DTF 2024. She co-directed Wilder’s The Long Christmas Dinner for the Abbey Theatre in 2021 and 2022.
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Pom Boyd
Peformer |
Pom Boyd is an award winning writer, actor and comedian. She has acted extensively in and written for theatre, film, TV and radio. In 2024 Pom was seen playing one of the lead roles Bernie in the second season of THE DRY by Nancy Harris directed by Paddy Breathnach. In Season one she was described as ‘scene stealing‘ by the Guardian newspaper. Pom previously worked with Paddy Breathnach when she appeared alongside Sarah Greene as Rosie’s Mother in the acclaimed film ROSIE (2019)by Roddy Doyle. In 2023 Pom appeared onstage in the Dublin Theatre Festival with Fishamble the New Play Company’s play IN TWO MINDS by Joanne Ryan. Pom’s performance was described as ‘career defining’ (Sunday Independent), ‘brilliant’, ‘illuminating’ (The Arts Review) and ‘Superb…top notch’ (The Irish Times). The theatre show SHAME (2018 Dublin Fringe Festival) made with songwriter Seán Millar, which Pom directed, designed and performed in was nominated for three Fringe Festival Awards among them best performer for Pom. Pom’s comedy shows have been to The Edinburgh Fringe and Dublin Theatre Festivals. Her popular comedy character the Windy Lady appeared in THE WINDY LADY’S CHRISTMAS, written and performed by Pom at Axis Ballymun in 2019. Pom was writing comedy and sketches from the very start of her career but her first official commission, stage play DOWN ONTO BLUE was produced by Rough Magic Theatre Company and received a Stewart Parker Award in 1994. Radio plays include TRY TONY (BBC Radio 4) and GET THE WAITER (RTE). Other relatively recent stage appearances include award winning shows THIS BEAUTIFUL VILLAGE by Lisa Tierney Keogh (Abbey Theatre 2019/2020) and ONE GOOD TURN by Una McKevitt (Abbey Theatre 2021). In 2021 Pom appeared as Mary, Frank’s Mother in the TV comedy series FRANK OF IRELAND alongside Domhnal, Brendan and Brian Gleeson (CH4/Amazon Prime). Her performance was variously reviewed as ‘excellent’ ‘superb’ and ‘scene stealing’. Later in 2024, Pom will appear alongside comedian Will Forte (SNL), Chris Walley (Young Offenders), Pat Short and Siobhan Cullen (The Dry, Obituary) in the new Netflix TV series BODKIN.
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Karen McCartney
Performer |
Karen was part of the first group to graduate from the BA in Acting course at The Lir Academy in 2014. Since then she has gone on to work at Druid Theatre Company on DruidShakespeare (winner of 2015 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Production) and Big Maggie, at The Gate Theatre on The Heiress and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. She was part of the cast of Hostel 16 for the Dublin Fringe Festival, Signatories at The Olympia Theatre, Futureproof as part of Cork’s Midsummer Festival, she played Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet at The Mill Theatre and Sister Rosaleen in Phillo. She has worked with Rough Magic on The Train, on the SEEDS production of Mr Burns: A Post Electric Play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (winner of 2019 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Ensemble), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Hecuba. In 2021 she performed in King Lear for Festival in a Van, Heart of a Dog as part of Dublin Theatre Festival and played the title role in Sham for Guna Nua. Most recently, she has worked with Dan Colley on The Wrens and also toured Ireland and internationally with A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. Her film and television credits include Crone Wood (Black Lodge), Fair City (RTÉ), The Titans That Built America (History Channel USA), Hecuba (C. Hogan Films) and The Woman in the Wall (BBC/Showtime) opposite Ruth Wilson.
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Kevin Smith
Lighting Design |
Kevin trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin. He is based in Dublin and has worked in Ireland and internationally designing for theatre, dance and opera. His previous work with Fishamble includes Outrage, Spinning and Rathmines Road.
Other theatre design credits include Blackwater Lightship (Verdant), Bang (Michelle Read), Class (Abbey Theatre & Inis Theatre), The Odd Couple (Everyman Theatre), Driving Miss Daisy, Moll, The Snow Queen, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Jungle Book (Gaiety) His opera design credits include Flight (Opera Collective), Die Fledermaus, Kiss Me Kate with NI Opera, King Arthur, Vampirella, Saints & Sinners and Clori Tirsi é Fileno (RIAM) and Flatpack with Ulysses Opera. Kevin’s dance design credits include Caged (Femme Bizarre), 12 Minute Dances (Liz Roche Co.), Coppelia (Ballet Ireland), Manefesto (Maiden Voyage). |
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Rob Moloney
Music and Sound Designer |
Rob Moloney is a composer and sound designer for live performance. He studied music in University College Cork and pursued further studies in Orchestration and Advanced Mixing Techniques in Berklee. He has collaborated with many independent performance artists and theatre companies in Ireland including The Abbey Theatre, Luke Murphy - Attic Projects, THEATREclub, Ballet Ireland, and Painted Bird.
Rob was one of the participating designers in the Irish pavilion at the Prague Quadrennial 2023. He was nominated for Best Soundscape at the Irish Theatre Awards 2022 for his work on ‘Volcano’ by Luke Murphy – Attic Projects, which he is currently recomposing into a studio album. Visit: www.robmoloney.com |
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Sinead Cuthbert
Costume Designer |
Sinead has worked for many theatre companies over the years as costume supervisor and than as costume designer, including the Passion Machine, Gate theatre, Opera Ireland, and Company SJ. Sinead was a member of Ouroborous theatre company and was privileged to be Costume Designer for the RTE’s commemoration concert ‘Centenary’ 2016.
Her most recent credits are: The Price (Gate theatre, 2023) Hangmen (Gaiety & Decadent 2023) Morrigan (John O’Brien and Cork Opera house 2022)The Lonesome West (Gaiety, 2022)The Long Christmas Dinner (Abbey theatre,Peacock stage 2021/22)Laethanta Sona (Happy Days) (Company SJ, Inisheer and DTF ’21)The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Gaiety, 2020) The Cripple of Inishmann (Gaiety, 2019) Dublin By Lamplight (Corn Exchange, Abbey Theatre, Galway Arts festival 2017, Project 2004) The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Peacock Theatre Sept 2016) Company; Beckett in the city: The Women Speak (Company SJ, DTF 2018, 2015, New York 2017,) Borstal Boy (Gaiety and Verdant, 2014); Homeplace (the Lyric Theatre 2009);Translations; Making History; Amadeus; Friel Festival Glenties (Ouroboros2004- 20010); The Nose; Lizzie Lavelle (performance corporation 2007-8) Since 2004 Sinead has been course coordinator and lecturer in costume design at the Samuel Beckett School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin. |
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Alyson Cummins
Set Design |
Alyson studied Architecture at UCD and trained at Motley theatre design school. She was a finalist in the Linbury biennial prize for stage design in 2007 and has gone on to design for stage and television
Designs for stage include: Volcano (Attic Productions), 4:48 Psychosis (The Lir), Morrigan (Cork Opera House / John O’Brien); Wires, Strings & Other Things (The Ark); L’Amico Fritz, L’Arlesiana, Così Fan Tutte, Zaza (Opera Holland Park), Così Fan Tutte, Iolanta & L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Royal Academy of Music London), Medea; Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris (Gate Theatre), Last Orders at the Dockside, Heartbreak House, The Risen People, Quietly, Perve, No Escape (Abbey Theatre), Midsummer, This Lime Tree Bower (Project Arts Centre/Eoin Kilkenny), Thick As Thieves (Clean Break & Theatr Clwyd), Tosca (Icelandic Opera), Sinners; The Nativity & The Gingerbread Mix-Up (Lyric Belfast), The Nest (Lyric Belfast/Young Vic), Quietly (Abbey Theatre/Irish Rep /Public Theater NY, Edinburgh - Fringe First); Fabric – Edinburgh Fringe First Award (Robin Rayner/Marlowe Theatre), Macbeth (Iford Arts); The Lighthouse (Royal Opera House), I Know All The Secrets In My World (Tiata Fahodzi), Pentecost (Lyric Belfast) – Best Set Design, Irish Times Theatre Award 2015, Mixed Marriage (Lyric Belfast), Be Infants in Evil (Druid), Summertime (Tinderbox), It’s A Family Affair (Sherman Cymru), Before It Rains (Bristol Old Vic and Sherman Cymru), Pornography (Waking Exploits). |
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Steph Ryan
Stage Manager |
Steph Ryan has worked in theatre for many years and with many companies including CoisCéim, Rough Magic, Abbey/Peacock Theatres, OTC and INO to name a few. Work with Fishamble includes: Handel’s Crossing, The End of The Road, Noah and the Tower Flower, Spinning, Little Thing Big Thing, Invitation to a Journey (a co-production with CoisCéim, Crash Ensemble and GIAF); Mainstream, Rathmines Road, On Blueberry Hill, Embargo and Pat Kinevane’s Forgotten, Silent, Underneath, Before and KING, and Duck Duck Goose. She is delighted to be back working with Fishamble on In Two Minds.
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Eoin Kilkenny
Production Manager |
Eoin Kilkenny has toured across Ireland and the world with theatre productions from Landmark Productions, Rough Magic Theatre Company, Fishamble: The New Play Company, CoisCéim Dance, Abbey Theatre, and many more. 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 Fringe Festival and London international Festival of Theatre. 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 an MA in Producing at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
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Past Performances
5 - 6 Oct Theatre Royal Waterford
11 - 14 Oct Draíocht, Blanchardstown, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival
18 - 21 Oct Belltable, Limerick
11 - 14 Oct Draíocht, Blanchardstown, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival
18 - 21 Oct Belltable, Limerick
