by Dennis Potter

directed by Matt Gray

From the writer of The Singing Detective and Pennies from Heaven, comes the first Studio play in our new season.

The story concerns a middle-aged couple, Mr & Mrs Bates,  whose world fell apart two years earlier, when their adult daughter Pattie was involved in a devastating road accident. From nowhere, Martin, walks into their lives, claiming to be Pattie’s fiancé. Mr Bates is highly cynical, while Mrs Bates is so desperate that she’s prepared to believe that Martin has been sent from heaven to help.

The language in this play is very dated and reflects the views and attitudes of the time, which some may find disturbing. Although written in the 1970s all of the themes explored within the play remain relevant: Religion, immigration, class, power, trust, retribution, despair and belief in miracles. All that appears to have changed is the words we choose to express our hopes and fears.

Of the 80,000 native Irish speakers, 6,000 live in the North of Ireland and three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real-life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save and reinvigorate their mother tongue.

Cast: Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds, Adam Best, Simone Kirby, Michael Fassbender

Runtime: 105 mins

Language: Irish, English

Genre: Drama/Comedy

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Set in 1980s Tuscany, Rohrwacher’s captivating film follows a lovelorn Englishman plundering Italy’s historical artefacts with a bizarre gang.

Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth.

For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina.

To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.  

Cast: Josh O'Connor and Isabella Rossellini.

Running time 131 minutes

Italian with English subtitles with portions of the film in English without subtitles.

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