Produced by Gaitkrash, the WONDERFUL cast includes Bernadette Cronin, Chrissie Reicke, Mairin Prendergast, Regina Crowley, Pauline O'Driscoll, and Sara Beer, and stellar production team. COME JOIN US IN CORK in June.
Kaite and I will be in discussion of Seamus O’Mahony (Consultant and author) on 21 June.
At this year’s Cork Midsummer Festival a powerful all female cast of six, (playing ages 16 to 76 years) present a provocative, honest, and at times laugh-out-loud work that tackles the last great taboo.
We all have to die. Cosy is a darkly comedic play that explores the joys and humiliations of ageing and how we shuffle off this mortal coil. The escalating tensions between three generations of a dysfunctional Cork family raises questions of what choices we really have in a world obsessed with eternal youth, and whether we truly own ourselves.
"Cosy. ... will make your heart pump and your belly shake." (Arts Scene in Wales)
Rose wants an exit plan that is bold and invigorating, but her three warring daughters have other ideas. What makes a good death? Everyone seems to have an opinion; Rose’s daughters, her precocious granddaughter and even the strange Welsh woman taking refuge in the garden...
Cosy is an inclusive production for a mainstream audience, exploring universal ethical issues of life, death, and our relationship to the medical profession.
Playwright Kaite O’Reilly said: “Often it seems we're in denial about two great truths - that we will probably age, and certainly, eventually, die. As a playwright, this is wonderful material to explore, filled with opportunities for humour, strong viewpoints and complex human emotions. To laugh in the face of both is I think the best revenge.”
Director Phillip Zarrilli said: “You’ll begin by laughing. And then you’ll laugh some more. And then you’ll start recognising familiar family dynamics and laugh some more. And then you’ll begin to reflect. And then you might feel sad. And then you’ll laugh some more. And then you’ll want to have a family discussion about three important, closely related subjects we all face—ageing, death, and dying with dignity. Come with your parents AND your teenage children. Plan some time together after the performance, and
have a talk about COSY.”
Produced by Gaitkrash for the Cork Midsummer Festival, this Irish premiere features an all-Cork family of five females ranging in age from 76 year old Rose, matriarch of the family (Mairin Prendergast) to her three daughters: Ed (Pauline O’Driscoll), Camille (Bernadette Cronin), and Gloria (Regina Crowley); and 16 year-old granddaughter (Christiane Cronin Reicke).
The production features live captioning throughout.
Gaitkrash was formed in 2007 by theatre artists Bernadette Cronin, Regina Crowley and sound and visual artist Mick O’Shea. The starting point of their work is the alchemy of collaboration when different artistic filters come together to explore shared questions about human existence.
With each new project Gaitkrash continues to explore different entry-points to get at the nature of the creative process and to craft multi-modal performance events which share with the spectator new possibilities to experience and reflect.
Recent Gaitkrash projects include Killing Stella adapted from the novel by Marlen Haushofer, England by Tim Crouch, Playing the Maids after Genet, Beckett’s Not I, Play and Footfalls and The Cabinet of Curiosities.
Tim Crouch wrote the following on Gaitkrash after attending their production of England in the Cork Midsummer Festival 2018:
“Regina Crowley, Bernadette Cronin and Mick O’Shea make rich, intelligent and deeply eloquent theatre. Their company, Gaitkrash, has the hallmark of a maturity borne from wide experience, despite its relatively short life. In their programming they follow artistic instincts that have been honed over many years of practice. Their decisions – in and out of the rehearsal room – are informed by a rigorous interrogation of process and form. Their passion stems from an understanding of what’s possible. They work
together because they want to work together; because they are still wide-eyed about the joyous and complex transformations that the theatre form makes possible.”
Playwright Kaite O’Reilly has won many awards for her writing, including the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry for Persians ( National Theatre Wales), Peggy Ramsay Award for YARD (Bush Theatre, London), and Manchester Theatre Awards for Perfect (C ontact Theatre). Other credits include: international Unlimited production And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK ‘d’ Monologues; the 9 fridas ( Taipei 2014, Hong Kong 2016); In Water I’m Weightless ( National Theatre Wales/ /Southbank Centre). She is a leading figure in the UK’s disability arts and culture scene.
Director Phillip Zarilli is the founding Artistic Director of the Llanarth Group which collaborated with Gaitkrash and Theatre P’yut (Korea) on co-creating the world premiere of playing ‘the maids’ which previewed at the 2014 Cork Midsummer Festival before premiering in 2015 at Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff) and touring. He has directed the world premiere productions of a number of Kaite O’Reilly’s plays including And Suddenly I Disappear(2018), The 9 fridas ( Taipei Arts Festival 2014, Hong Kong Rep International Black Box Festival 2016), and The Almond and the Seahorse(Sherman Cymru, Cardiff, 2008).
JOIN THE WRITER AND DIRECTOR OF ‘COSY’ IN CONVERSATION WITH SEAMUS O’MAHONEY
Crawford Art Gallery (lecture theatre) 20 June 5.30pm
Join playwright Kaite O’Reilly and director Phillip Zarrilli as they discuss our attitudes to end-of-life scenarios with Seamus O’Mahoney, writer of the award
winningbookTheWayWeDieNow.H asoursocietylosttheabilitytodealwith death? Join the conversation and then come to see ‘Cosy’ after.
Listings information
Writer: Kaite O’Reilly
Director: Phillip Zarrilli
Actors: Sara Beer, Bernadette Cronin, Regina Crowley, Pauline O’Driscoll, Maureen Prendergast, Christiane Cronin Reicke.
Sound Art: Mick O’Shea
Costumes: Valentina Gambardella
Lights: Ace McCarron, relight by Declan Leonard
18-22 June at 19:30 (2 hours with interval)
Firkin Crane, John Redmond St., Shandon
Tickets available at
https://www.corkmidsummer.com/programme/event/cosy-by-kaite-oreilly
or at the Cork Midsummer Festival Box Office, Cook St., from June 8th
Suitable for audiences from 12 to 112 years of age
Notes to editors:
Instagram: @gaitkrash Facebook: Gaitkrash Theatre CompanyInstagram: @corkmidsummer Facebook: Cork Midsummer FestivalInstagram: @firkincrane Facebook: F irkin Crane
@kaiteoreilly www.kaiteoreilly.com www.kaiteoreilly.wordpress.com
#cosycork
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COSY, CONTACT..... Saoirse Garetemail: saoirse.212@gmail.com phone: 0872599311
CHECK OUT THE complete FESTIVAL PROGRAMME: https://www.corkmidsummer.com/programme/event/cosy-by-kaite-oreilly