The première of Castel Gandolfo by Jim Nolan (Moonshine, The Salvage Shop) at Garter Lane Arts Centre and directed by Ben Barnes (Artistic Director of Four Rivers) takes place on 4 October 2024 and runs until 19 October. Preview on 3 October. The première coincides with the publication of the play script.
Set over two days in the backyard of the eponymous Castel Gandolfo, a decaying terraced house in Waterford’s inner city, Stephen Callaghan is dying and the frail threads that bind his family are fast unravelling.
His daughter, Rose, is about to lose her job; his son, Tony, is losing the race to restore his father’s vintage car and his granddaughter, Stella, is about to swap a Law degree for a start in the local chipper.
As if that wasn’t enough, Stephen’s ex-wife, the formidable Dolly, is back in town. The shock return of another exile threatens to reveal the truth behind a thirty-year-old façade.
Castel Gandolfo revolves around the cataclysmic exposure of a Waterford family’s deepest and most secret wounds and features Carrie Crowley, Michael Power, Garrett Lombard, Sarah Madigan and Elishka Lane.
Tickets €25 (Concessions €22) available from Garter Lane Theatre
Jim Nolan was born in Waterford in 1958 and continues to live there. A founder member and former Artistic Director of Red Kettle Theatre Company, Jim is a member of Aosdána, a former writer-in-Association at the Abbey Theatre and at Garter Lane Arts Centre. His plays Moonshine (1992), The Salvage Shop (1998), Blackwater Angel (2001), Sky Road(2007), Brighton (2010), Dreamland (2014) and Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye (2017) and Castel Gandolfo (2024) are published by The Gallery Press.
Jim has worked as a writer and director with some of Ireland’s leading theatre companies, including Barnstorm, Field Day, Rough Magic and the Abbey Theatre. He has won several awards for his work, including Sunday Independent Play of the Year for The Salvage Shop and Irish Times Theatre Awards Best New Play nominations for The Salvage Shop and Dreamland.