Theatre: Real Life at the Project Arts Centre

Real Life is a soap opera. It’s a cabaret. It’s the drum beat at the end of Eastenders. It’s a one-man show with a cast of 15. It’s about being an unfit mother, wielding a bread knife and dancing in a nightclub with your top off. It’s about the things we like to think about; that may be unlikely to happen.

Bringing together a stellar ensemble cast and a team of Ireland’s leading designers and artists, multi-award winning inclusive arts company Run of the Mill are proud to present Real Life, a new contemporary theatre production that explores fantasy, reality and the art of facilitation.

Run of the Mill are a multi-award winning inclusive arts organisation committed to creating a platform for the stories, artistic expressions and talents of people with an intellectual disability in the arts in Ireland. They strive to make work of high artistic quality that is entertaining, unique, ambitious, impactful and visible on our stages and our screens. They work towards making the landscape of arts practice in Ireland a more inclusive one. Recent work includes the Oscar-Qualifying live action short film Headspace (winner Grand Prix Best Irish Short, 67th Cork International Film Festival) and a National Tour of the multi-award winning Making a Mark by Shaun Dunne, co-created by Mark Smith and Aisling Byrne.

The Run of the Mill Ensemble are emerging artists Eoghan Ashe, Conor Begley, Neil Coffey, Maurice Coll, Lucy Smith, John Egan, Wesley Fairbrother, Teresa Flood, Keith Foley, Derek McSweeney, Ella-Jane Moore, Jackie O’Hagan and Mark Smith. The ensemble are based at Maynooth University and since 2022 have been working in collaboration with the company to develop a portfolio of practice, pave pathways to future professionalising and develop original ideas for new work. Recent projects include artist development programme The Engine Room (2022), work incubator programme The Wheelhouse (2023), and new work strand Take it Away (2024). Across this period (2022-2024) the ensemble have developed Real Life and have worked collaboratively to develop upcoming original film project Mary is Missing. Individual projects include Mark Smith’s multi-award winning Making a Mark, the Oscar-Qualifying short film Headspace, poetry short film Connections (with Colm Keegan) and Jackie O’ Hagan and Wesley Fairbother’s upcoming clown piece Linda, George and Gillian in collaboration with Raymond Keane– which will be shared as a work-in-development at this years Dublin Theatre Festival.

Promo Photography by Pato Cassinoni.
Funded by Arts Council Ireland, with support from Project Arts Centre, Maynooth University, and field:arts.