Under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, nothing will stop his mandatory birthday celebrations, including choosing a child from each school class across the land to bake a cake in his honour. Despite Lamia’s best efforts to avoid it, knowing how difficult it will be to source the ingredients, she is picked among her peers to produce the cake, which she must do, or face the consequences.  

Lamia’s quest for the ingredients allows us explore the gamut of Iraqi society, painting a moving portrait of the resilience of a people caught between authoritarian rule and injudicious American imperialism.

It was the first Iraqi film to feature at the Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered in the Directors' Fortnight and won both the section's Audience Award, as well as the festival's prestigious Camera d'Or.

Highly recommended

The Playboy of the Western World

by John Millington Synge

directed by Caitríona McLaughlin

Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) joins Éanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment) and Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls) in John Millington Synge’s riveting play of youth and self-discovery.

Pegeen Flaherty’s life is turned upside down when a young man walks into her pub claiming that he’s killed his father. Instead of being shunned, the killer becomes a local hero and begins to win hearts, that is until a second man unexpectedly arrives on the scene…

Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Caitríona McLaughlin directs this darkly funny tale full to the brim with secrets.

Backstairs Billy by Marcelo Dos Santos is a sharp, witty and surprisingly touching comedy that takes audiences behind the closed doors of Clarence House to reveal a side of royal life rarely seen.

At the centre of the story is William “Billy” Tallon, the Queen Mother’s devoted and fiercely protective page. Billy rules the royal backstairs with theatrical flair, razor-sharp wit and unwavering loyalty to the woman he serves.

Set during a time of great social change in Britain, the play explores loyalty, identity and the quiet power of those who live their lives in the shadows of the monarchy. With sparkling dialogue, moments of delicious camp humour and surprising emotional depth, Backstairs Billy offers a fascinating glimpse into the private world behind royal protocol.

Both hilarious and poignant, this critically acclaimed play shines a light on one of the royal household’s most intriguing characters and the complicated relationships that existed behind palace doors.

This production holds a special resonance for audiences at the Queen Mother Theatre. As the only theatre in the world to carry her title, it feels especially fitting that this story of her household is brought to life on our stage. In many ways, it feels as though the play is almost coming home.

written by Ron Hutchinson

directed by Yvonne Patterson

Hollywood 1939, semi-independent mogul David O. Selznick has shut down production on his mega budget version of Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling novel Gone with the Wind. He scraps the original script and sacks the director in the process. 

Determined to produce a rewrite in five days, he calls on the help of script doctor Ben Hecht, possibly the only person in America who has not read the novel and the movie’s new director Victor Fleming, poached straight from the set of The Wizard of Oz, where he had been dealing with squabbling Munchkins and coming to blows with Judy Garland. His reputation is on the line, Selznick locks himself and his two collaborators in his office with nothing but peanuts and bananas to sustain them and the creative session begins…