What's New?

'The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui' went into rehearsals on Monday 25th January and all is going well! We have a brilliant cast on board; Tony Devlin, Damien Hasson, Daithi Mac Suibhne, Charlie Murphy, Patrick J. O'Reilly and Jack Walsh.

The tour is produced by Bruiser's Company Manager, Stephen Beggs. Our Stage Management team is Rory Casey and Patrick Sanders; Stage Design by David Craig, Lighting Design by Sean Paul O'Rawe and Musical Direction by Ross Anderson. Our Production Intern is Catherine Rees, who took part in our Level 2 Summer School in 2009. Cast and crew are hard at work making sure that this latest show is up there with the best of Bruiser's previous work. The following photos show the Company in rehearsals at The South Bank Playhouse.

We are premiering the show in The Waterfront Hall Studio, Belfast for FIVE SHOWS ONLY FROM 16TH TO 18TH FEBRUARY before heading out on tour round the North and South of Ireland - if you are Belfast based make sure you snap up those tickets before they disappear! See the Present Show Page for all booking details.

We are also delighted that one of our three Patrons Duke Special will be helping us to launch the show at The Waterfront on 16th February.

Bruiser Patron Duke Special is no stranger to the works of Bertolt Brecht, having recently completed a hugely successful run of 'Mother Courage and her Children' at The National Theatre in London, where he composed and with his band performed all the music for the production. He says, 'It was an amazing experience working at the National Theatre on 'Mother Courage' and it has definitely influenced the direction in which I want to take my own performances. I'm also very excited about Bruiser's forthcoming production of 'The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui' coming up at The Waterfront in Belfast and on tour around the country in February and March. I'm delighted to be one of Bruiser's Patrons and to be involved with a Company whose work is of such a high standard. I'm also interested in how the worlds of music and theatre overlap and influence each other, so its great to be associated with a theatre group who explore this area.' Duke Special will be joining Bruiser at their first performance of 'Arturo Ui' at The Waterfront on Tuesday 16th February, to help launch the production in style.

Bruiser's Company Manager Stephen Beggs and former Bruiser Chair and long time friend of the company Tania Carlisle were down at OMAC for the much loved Arts Centre's final Open Day to the public on 27th January. The building has been our artistic home since we first worked there in 1998 and will be much missed. Every cloud though, as the OMAC's closure heralds the arrival in 2011/12 of the brand spanking new MAC - we cannot wait!

Bruiser Board Member Aidan Johnston of Carson McDowell Solicitors recently received Highly Commended status in the Professional Development Category of the 2010 Arts & Business Awards. Congratulations to Aidan from all at Bruiser!

We are also delighted to confirm that we will be presenting 'Low Pay? Don't Pay!' by Dario Fo on tour in September and October 2010. This is a brand new 2010 version of the classic comedy 'Can't Pay! Won't Pay!', by Dario Fo himself and we will be presenting the Northern Irish, Scottish and Irish premiere of this new version. More details to follow, but we will be presenting a sneak preview rehearsed reading of the script as part of 'Sunday In The City' at The Group Space, Ulster Hall at 1pm on Sunday 7th March.

In addition we will be holding Levels 1 & 2 Summer Schools in July in The Waterfront Hall as part of the Trans Urban Arts Academy and a further School up in the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine (also in July) as well as our Graduate Academy in Queens University, Belfast in August.

Phew! Quite a year! See you all on the road!

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