‘The Tinker’s Curse’ returns

Date Published: 02-Jun-2011

Michael Harding’s acclaimed play, The Tinker’s Curse returns to the Town Hall Theatre on Thursday and Friday, June 9 and 10.

Telling the story of a travelling man who climbs Croagh Patrick to do penance for the sins of a lifetime, this play is performed by the writer, accompanied by musician Finbar Coady. The Tinker’s Curse is a rare insight into the joys and sorrows that make up the life of an Irish Traveller, and as a result is both funny and poignant. The play was first produced by Livin’ Dred Theatre Company in 2007 and was nominated for Best New Play in The Irish Times Theatre Awards.

Harding plays Rattigan, a Traveller old enough to remember the old days when Travellers in Ireland had a place in the scheme of things, fixing pots and pans. However “plastic killed the Travelling People” he explains, and much of the traditions and lore have been lost.

Harding breaks many of the conventions of the theatre as he embarks on Rattigan’s story, and his need to tell people who he is. Along the way the audience meets his wife Julia, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, who has “been in the audience of The Late Late Show”; his daughter Michelle, who is blissfully unaware of the effects her blossoming sexuality has, and Johnny Reilly, a ‘buffer’ or settled man who comes a courting.

Theatre critic of The Sunday Independent Emer O’Kelly was deeply impressed by the production and by Harding’s performance, describing the play as “a heart-searing, heart-searching piece of work, provoking tears and haunting the soul” and Harding’s performance as “nothing short of glorious – a piece of sustained dramatic economy that is performance art of soaring, incandescent strength”.

Booking is now open at the Theatre on 091-569777 or on the web at www.tht.ie