First show in 'world's most westerly theatre'

Later this month, a brand-new outdoor theatre opens in West Mayo with aerial circus spectacle Grace: The Story of a Pirate Queen.

This most westerly theatre in the world has been created by Mulranny Arts Centre as part of their commitment to bring exceptional live performance to the West of Ireland. The specially-designed arena, using local and reused materials, is set high on a hill above Clew Bay with views out across the Atlantic Ocean. At 7pm on Friday, June 26, one of the longest nights of the year, it will premiere with the first performance of Grace with more shows throughout the weekend.

It might sound like a pipe dream to build a new outdoor theatre in the windy far West. But Mulranny Arts Centre director Cheryl Cobern Browne believes there couldn’t be a more appropriate place. 

"Creativity is about using resources at hand and making it all work," she says. "We’re thrilled to have Grace: The Story of a Pirate Queen as our first public performance in the very land she where she lived and ruled."

Grace will fill the most westerly theatre with spectacular aerial circus, live original music and storytelling, celebrating the gender-bending, ground-breaking, convention-defying life of the Pirate Queen.

"It’s part faith and part pure hard work," says Dea Birkett, Director of Achill Island based Circus250, the company behind the Grace show. "Building a new outdoor theatre on the west coast and creating a large-scale circus aerial show to fill it might sound mad, but Mulranny Arts Centre have created not only the westernmost but the most beautiful performance space in the country. From your seat, you look out across the waves that Grace O’Malley conquered. Live original music on traditional harp and fiddle accompanies the performance. You’re transported to Grace’s 16th century watery world. Where else could you do that?"