Strandline

By Abbie Spallen

If you push too far, secrets will out.

Following the recent death of her husband, Máirín, an artist and an outsider living in a small coastal village in Northern Ireland, gathers three local women to her house. Each of the women has a reason for being there and a bloody good reason not to be there.
These women have secrets. This community has secrets. And, as the evening passes, Máirín learns more than she bargained for about the man she had loved.
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This richly comic, searing drama by Abbie Spallen, one of Ireland’s most exciting playwrights and recent winner of the Steward Parker Trust Award, stars Fiona Bell, Cathy Belton, Samantha Heaney, Conor MacNeill and Eleanor Methven.

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Created by

Directed by Jim Culleton
Designed by Sabine Dargent
Lighting Design by Paul Keogan
Sound Design by Denis Clohessy
Costume Design by Leonore McDonagh

Cast

Fiona Bell
Cathy Belton
Samantha Heaney
Conor MacNeill
​Eleanor Methven

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Touring

2009
Project Arts Centre 17th November – 5th December

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Reviews

‘…Abbie Spallen’s potent and densely layered new play… reverberates with mythological echoes, her story set-up parcels out salient political points and
as the figure of an artist and a distrusting community crash together,
comedy and disquiet blur into one… tremendous performances… awash with style and verve, wit and intellect’
The Irish Times
 
‘explosive dialogue… played with menacing wit’
The Guardian
 
‘bracing new play… knockout cast’
Metro
 
‘superb performances… absolutely brilliant… I can’t recommend it strongly enough’
Arena, RTE
 

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‘writing is quite extraordinary… wonderful, extraordinary… very exciting play… very funny, wonderfully witty’
The View, RTE
 
‘the writing is ignited by Spallen’s venomous wit but the cast understand the despicable characters perfectly… directed with a keen understanding of the mythic undertones of the action’
Sunday Business Post
 
‘Abbie Spallen’s drama works well on several levels, combining complex thriller, treatise on identity and brooding character study… superbly sketched out via Spallen’s blackly comic use of vernacular… superb set… Jim Culleton guides proceedings with an air of clammy claustrophobia… characterisations are superbly drawn, with Belton and Methven both compelling as the chilling climax is revealed’
Sunday Times