Blue Raincoat Theatre Company is a professional
theatre company based in
Sligo
Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
It is the longest-running theatre ensemble in Ireland.
Company
Founded in 1991, Blue Raincoat has staged 63 productions, 14 of which were world premieres. The company is a venue-based theatre ensemble, and performs primarily in The Factory Performance Space in Sligo, although it also tours throughout Ireland. The Factory Performance Space was originally a warehouse dating to the 1800s, but it was converted to a performance and training center during the 1990s. The Blue Raincoat Theatre Company won the national
AIB "Better Ireland" award for the development project in 1999. This project was overseen by Hamilton Young Architects' former director David Lawlor. Due to their contribution to the project, Hamilton Young Architects won the national COTHU Business Sponsorship of the Year award.
The company's other performance venues include the
National Theatre of Ireland and the
Dublin Theatre Festival. Blue Raincoat has also performed at theatres in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
and
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
. Blue Raincoat operate ongoing outreach programmes, national training seminars, internal training, the Cairde Community Festival and music events.
Productions
Every year, Blue Raincoat produces between four and six professional productions, emphasizing on modern European classics, new writing, and new stage adaptations. It has a repertory system to tour these productions throughout Ireland and internationally.
For over three decades, the company has been touring its works throughout Ireland with shows like ''Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Third Policeman, The Bald Soprano'', and ''Shackleton''.
In 2013, Blue Raincoat began its season with
''Endgame'' by
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
.
References
Further reading
* Trench, Rhona, ''Blue Raincoat Theatre Company''. (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2015)
External links
*
{{authority control
Culture in Sligo (town)
Organisations based in Sligo (town)
Theatre companies in the Republic of Ireland