SAFE HOUSE

Galway, Ireland, in the 90s. An empty handball court, strewn with several televisions, a broken fridge and various items of garden furniture. This is where Grace, a young woman, has set up a makeshift home for herself, in search of a refuge from the outside world. How did Grace end up here? Why doesn’t she have a real home? What happened? Gradually, through a sequence of fragmentary set pieces, we find out more and more about Grace’s life. A childhood defined by poverty, alcoholic adults and disastrous family gatherings, an isolated youth in the countryside, a desperate escape to the city, a return to the countryside and the attempt to numb the trauma she has experienced: Grace tries to process her own past, to find some meaning in what she has lived through, either by putting it behind her or accepting it as an irrevocable part of herself. »SAFE HOUSE« is the first collaboration between the composer Anna Mullarkey and the author and director Enda Walsh, produced by Ireland’s National Theatre. It is a solo piece, a song cycle with images and film sequences, in which the past and the present, memories and fantasies melt into each other, in which time jumps back and forth, day becomes night and one season blends into the other.

ENDA WALSH is a playwright, director and screenwriter. He has written, among other things, the plays »Disco Pigs«, »Misterman«, and, together with David Bowie, the musical »Lazarus«, as well as the screenplays for, among others, the films »Hunger«, and »Small Things Like These«. In 1998, Thomas Ostermeier directed »Disco Pigs« at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, and in 2000 the production was transferred to the Schaubühne. The German premiere of »Misterman« was presented at the Schaubühne in 2000.

WITH: Kate Gilmore
DIRECTOR: Enda Walsh
COMPOSITION: Anna Mullarkey
LYRICS BY: Enda Walsh
COSTUME AND SET DESIGN: Katie Davenport
LIGHT DESIGN: Adam Silverman
VIDEO: Jack Phelan
SOUND DESIGN: Helen Atkinson
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Eoghan Carrick
PRODUCER: Craig Flaherty
VOICE DIRECTOR: Andrea Ainsworth
HAIR AND MAKE UP: Tee Elliott

CAST CREDITS FROM RECORDINGS:

• Aintín (recorded film): Máire Ní Ghráinne
• 12-year-old Grace (recorded film): Nova Farrelly
• Grace's Mother (recorded film): Gwynne McElveen
• Grace's Father (recorded film): Seán Duggan
• Grace's Boyfriend (recorded film): Lórcan Strain
• Older Brother (recorded film): Colin Campbell
• Older Brother (recorded film): Barry Simpson
• Older Sister (recorded film): Sorcha Dawson
• Older Sister (recorded film): Jade Silke Featherston
• Party Guest (recorded film): Daisy Cantwell
• Party Guest (recorded film): Francesca Europa
• Party Guest (recorded film): Aoife Gaffney
• Party Guest (recorded film): Khloe Kennedy
• Party Guest (recorded film): Callie Weir
• Ensemble (recorded film): Myles Feerick
• Ensemble (recorded film): Niall Hassett
• Ensemble (recorded film): Claire Millane
• Ensemble (recorded film): Edel Quinn
• Mourner (recorded film): Paul Byrne