Don’t miss Shirley Valentine at the Home Rule Club in Kilkenny

A stalwart of Kilkenny’s amateur theatre stage will take to the stage later this month to perform in the hilarious and much-loved comedic classic, Shirley Valentine.

Claire Gibbs is well known in theatrical circles in the South-East and was involved in New Theatre Group, the Kilkenny Pantomime Society, the Kilkenny Musical Society and KATS.

Shirley Valentine by Lake Productions and directed by Mary Craddock will run at the Barn at the Home Rule Club from July 24 to 27 at 7.30pm.

“I am very excited about taking on the role of Shirley Valentine, it is a great challenge and working with Mary Craddock is incredible, she is a great director,” she said.

Feeling trapped in a world of domesticity, Shirley (Clare Gibbs), a housewife from Liverpool, England, needs a change in her life before she has another conversation with the walls. When her friend Jane (Alison Steadman) invites her on a trip to a Greek island, Shirley jumps at the chance. Upon landing, Jane ditches Shirley for a fling, which means Shirley is left to her own devices. Shirley wanders the island, meets a tavern owner and begins to find the joy in life again. First premiered in London by Bob Swash at the Vaudeville theatre on 21 January 1988 with Pauline Collins as Shirley.

Founded in 2018, Lake Productions have to date, produced almost thirty productions. These include stage work, radio documentaries and poetry books.

Their adopted home of Thomastown Community Hall has seen productions such as ‘The Kings of the Kilburn High Road’, ‘Moll’, and ‘Da’.

In 2024, Community Radio Kilkenny city will broadcast four radio documentaries produced by Lake.
Written and directed by Lake Productions, the series of Documentaries, titled ‘Writers in profile’, will feature such writers as John B Keane, WB Yeats, Seamus Heaney and Patrick Kavanagh.

More recently, Lake Productions, in association with The Recovery college South East, and The Involvement Centre produced a book of poetry – White Twine and old suitcases’ that featured over 60 writers.