New episode each evening on Drogheda Arts Festival 2021 YouTube Channel
FRI 4TH – MON 7TH JUNE | 7.30PM
After 14 months away from the stage, Quintessence Theatre have reinvented their unique and innovative storytelling style for the online world premiere of their first digital play: “Behind Locked Doors”.
Lockdown. Locked up. Locked in. No way out. No way in.
Drogheda, 2020. In the midst of a global pandemic two neighbours each grapple with the gendered shadow pandemics of Ireland – domestic violence and parental alienation.
In Quintessence Theatre’s digital debut, based on true stories from across Ireland, Behind Locked Doors explores the lived experience of one man and one woman each trapped in their own cycles of abuse exacerbated by COVID-19 restrictions.
The Behind Locked Doors world premiere will be released in a series of 4 short episodes online across the Drogheda Arts Festival 2021 as a prelude to a full length live stage production in 2022.
Suitable for ages 15+
CAST – Fiona Keenan O’Brien, Anthony Kinahan and Leah Rossiter
DIRECTOR – Anna Simpson
EDITOR – Steven Larkin
For more Information see: www.droghedaartsfestival.ie
About Quintessence Theatre
Founded in 2015 by director Anna Simpson as the inaugural Theatre Company in Residence of the An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk, Quintessence dedicates itself to exploring the human condition through the most theatrical means available to us: the actor themselves, their imagination, and embracing the live relationship between actor and audience.
We believe in play; we believe in collaboration; we believe in amplifying voices not always heard; and we believe in the democraticisation of art: that it should reach people beyond the cultural hubs of large urban populations; that great work can be made from modest means if you have those quintessential elements: a story, a performer, and audience.
We harness the full potential of the actor’s body through heightened physical approaches, mime and a playful ensemble. We seek to surprise, move and provoke our audiences, entertaining them and creating dynamic, innovative, visceral, compassionate story-telling that finds the new in the familiar, and touches on urgent issues at the heart of Irish society here and now.
Quintessence is run by its core members: performer and Company Manager Leah Rossiter, performer and Producer Anthony Kinahan, performer and Company Liaison Fiona Keenan O’Brien, and led by founder and Artistic Director Anna Simpson.
