Who we are

Cork Cultural Companions is an Age & Opportunity Arts initiative, delivered by Muintir Cork and supported by the HSE and Cork City and County Councils. Cork Cultural Companions has local networks of members who attend events together regularly in Cork City, Mallow, Bantry and East Cork.

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

Cork Arts Theatre Summer Shows

 

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A Summer full of Great Theatre

Cork Arts Theatre presents


Summer Programme 2025

Download Full Programme Here

Cork Arts Theatre’s Summer programme 2025 is our most eclectic yet, featuring local, national and international artists and companies, providing 8 weeks of great theatre in Cork throughout July and August.


We have two plays by Cork-based writers, Mike O’Dowd’s Allison and Brendan Griffin’s The Silver Case, as well as touring work from further afield. From New York, the award-winning The Smuggler by Ronán Noone and from Hong Kong, Theatre du Pif’s beautiful multimedia experience Must I Cry, which wowed critics at the Edinburgh Festival last year.


Other touring work includes The Good Crank played by Rose Henderson, Noel Coward’s Still Life by Lighthouse Theatre, and Seamus O’Rourke’s Padraig Potts. The season ends with Cork improv maestros (The Improv Panto & Murder Mystery gang) staging their brand-new holiday show, Getaway Outta That!. The perfect antidote to the end of Summer. 

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Cork Arts Theatre - "The Little Theatre with a Big Heart!"

The Everyman Theatre Summer Shows

 

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SUMMER AT THE EVERYMAN
SUMMER SAVER OFFER
THRILLING DRAMA
The Beacon | The Everyman, Cork | 4–19 Jul 2025
A captivating murder mystery about a family set in West Cork... Some secrets should stay buried... 
 
FRI 4–SAT 19 JUL, 7.30PM | MATINEE SAT, 2PM
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The Girl on the Train | The Everyman, Cork | 19–23 Aug 2025
This gripping psychological thriller, adapted from Paula Hawkins’ novel, will keep you guessing until the final moment.
 
TUE 19–SAT 23 AUG, 8PM | MATINEE SAT, 2PM
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CRACKING COMEDY
Jason Manford: A Manford All Seasons | The Everyman, Cork | 25 Jul 2025
★★★★ “Effortlessly entertaining” – Evening Standard
 
FRI 25 JUL, 8PM
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THEATRE MAGIC
Stones in His Pockets | The Everyman, Cork | 29 Jul–10 Aug 2025
An authentic rediscovery of the worldwide hit, Stones in His Pockets captures the magic of the original with stunning new stagecraft. 
 
TUE 29 JUL–SUN 10 AUG, 7.30PM | MATINEE SAT & SUN, 2PM
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WHY MAGIC? | The Everyman, Cork | 28 Aug 2025
WHY MAGIC? is a spellbinding tale of self-discovery filled with jaw-dropping visual and interactive magic. 
 
THU 28 AUG, 7.30PM
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WOMEN'S STORIES
Mother of All the Behans | The Everyman, Cork | 12–16 Aug 2025
In this masterfully executed one-woman show, Imelda May brings to life the remarkable story of the witty raconteur, singer and rebel Kathleen Behan.
 
TUE 12–SAT 16 AUG, 7.30PM | MATINEE SAT, 2PM
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The Secrets of Primrose Square | The Everyman, Cork | 5–6 Sep 2025
Adapted from Claudia Carroll's bestseller, The Secrets of Primrose Square is a sharply funny and deeply human tale of resilience .
 
FRI 5–SAT 6 SEP, 8PM
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JUST ANNOUNCED!
Just Announced | The Everyman, Cork
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WHAT'S ON AT THE EVERYMAN
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West Cork Chamber Music Festival

 

Tuesday 1 July

11am Coffee Concert St Brendan's Church


Reinoud Van Mechelen, a nocte temporis

Clérambault's Cantatas Apollon, La Jaloux, Pyrame et Thisbé

Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's Trio Sonata No.1 in G minor

French cantatas from the 18th century are -unlike their German counterparts from the same period- profane works that one could consider musical short stories. Composed for one or more voices accompanied by a basso continuo, we can consider them real chamber operas. This program brings cantatas for one voice written by a comparatively unknown French composer who however was a master in this genre during the Age of Enlightenment : Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, alongside one trio sonata by the genius female composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, known for having played for king Louis XIV at the age of five. In this concert high tenor, Reinoud Van Mechelen, is accompanied by flute, violin, gamba and harpsichord singing three secular cantatas written for Madame Maintenon, the mistress of Louis XIV, the Sun King.

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12.10pm Crespo Midday Series

Christian Fellowship Church



Ella van Poucke

J.S. Bach's Cello Suite No.3 in C major & Cello Suite No.5 in C minor

In this series of midday recitals we present young soloists in programmes of their choice in a small and intimate venue with no stage and no possibility of a piano. Ella van Poucke is a regular performer both in Bantry and the Ortús Festival in Cork. She studied at the famous Kronberg Academy for top string players. Playing the Bach Suites is a rite of passage for every young cellist. The Third Suite positively rejoices in the extrovert and confident key of C major; openness, riches, magnanimity are on offer here, presented in a generous and open-hearted embrace. The C minor Suite is more serious, befitting the minor key and the lower tuning.

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2pm Young Musician Series

St Brendan's Hall


Olympia Quartet

Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E flat

Daniel Anthony Vives-Lynch's String Quartet No. 2 in D Dorian - Tine na hÉireann (Irish Fire)

Philip Glass' Quartet Satz

Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor

Olympia Quartet is the second of the four student Quartets taking part in the Festival Masterclasses. The Quartet is led by the prize-winning young Ukrainian violinist, Yevlaliia Yershova, with Ellen Crowley, Charlie Duff and Adam Joyce. They are studying in Cork and have also chosen one the Kronos ‘Fifty for the Future’ quartets, a short ‘Quartet movement’ by Philip Glass. They will also premiere a brand new work by one of the winners of the Festival’s Composition Competition for young Irish composers plus works by Mendelssohn's sister, Fanny Henschel, and Shostakovich's famously autobiographical Eight Quartet.


Daniel Anthony Vives-Lynch is one of the winners of this year's Composition Competition. His work was described by Deirdre Gribbin as having 'energy and drive.'

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4pm Crespo Series

Bantry House


Clara Izambert, Brett Dean, Anna Besson and Lucy Fitz Gibbon

Debussy's Sonata for flute, viola and harp

Early Kim's now and then

Bax's Elegiac Trio

Britten's Lachrymae

Earl Kim was a noted American composer of dazzling and austere works with a special link to the music theatre of Beckett, whose words are set in this short song cycle along with a Yeats excerpt and Nina’s monologue from Chekov’s Seagull. Britten’s Lachrymae is a set of variations on a sad love-song If my complaints could passions move, composed for Britten’s own instrument the viola. Here the harp replaces the piano. Bax’s Elegiac Trio for flute, viola and harp was composed in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rebellion. Strangely it was composed at the same time as Debussy's Trio for the same unusual combination of instruments that follows, though neither composer knew of the other's work Debussy created a magical new world with the same instruments, composed at the height of the 1st World War, Debussy invents a delicate and sensuous world far, far removed from the slaughter in the trenches.


Due to unforeseen circumstances, Agnès Clément will not be performing in this concert. The Festival is delighted to welcome the brilliant harpist Clara Izambert instead.

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7.30pm Main Evening Concert

St Brendan's Church



Lucy Fitz Gibbon and Marmen Quartet

Deirdre Gribbin's when you think you are looking WORLD PREMIERE


Brett Dean and Ardeo Quartet

Mendelssohn's String Quintet No. 2 in B flat


Chiaroscuro Quartet

Beethoven's Quartet in E flat

The American soprano, Lucy Fitz Gibbon will join Marmen Quartet for the World Premiere of Deirdre Gribbin’s song cycle to texts by Irish poet Jessica Traynor, a powerful new work commissioned by the Festival. Mendelssohn’s Second String Quintet could almost be described as a mature version of the famous Octet he wrote when he was only sixteen using a similar concertante style with the first violin soaring above an almost orchestral accompaniment. After the interval, Chiaroscuro Quartet play the first of the late Beethoven quartets, composed exactly 200 years ago. In many ways it is the most approachable of the set with the conventional four movements, whose opening is haunted by a thunderous motto theme giving way eventually to a wonderful singing Adagio, where time stands still.

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10pm Candlelit Late Night

Bantry House



Paddington Trio

Schumann's Piano Trio in D minor

Schumann’s popular D minor Trio was written in response to the G minor Trio composed by his wife Clara. The two Trios were premiered together in one the many Schumann Hausmusik concerts with Clara on piano; she was with Liszt Europe’s preeminent pianist so those concerts must have been quite some occasions. Schumann’s Trio is highly dramatic reflecting his obsession with opera at that time. The outer movements almost burst apart with the energy he produces and, in between, he creates a deeply felt but tender slow movement.

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Wednesday 2 July 


11am Coffee Concert

St Brendan's Church


Rachel Podger and Marcin Swiatkiewicz

J.S Bach's Sonata in B minor for violin and harpsichord; Sonata in G minor for solo violin; Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor; and Sonata in E major for violin and harpsichord

J.S.Bach’s son CPE.Bach was full of praise for the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord, calling them ‘amongst the finest works of my dearly beloved father. They still sound excellent and give me great pleasure although they are over 50 years old. There are several Adagios in them which even nowadays could not be set in a more singing style.’ Today's composers might read this comment with wry amusement, a music-loving society that was only interested in new works, a time when old music was no longer interesting, not up-to-date. Now Bach, much of whose music is 300 years old, has become the measure that few composers can live up to, Here is music where every note is in exactly its rightful place, the absolute clarity of his music, especially in the hands of these two masters, is both invigorating and calming – a perfect start to this day.

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12.10pm Crespo Midday Series

Christian Fellowship Church


Chiaroscuro Quartet

Haydn's Quartet in G minor and Quartet in D

The six so-called ‘Sun’ quartets of Haydn’s Op.20 gave birth to the string quartet as the chamber music form par excellence and towards which all composers would later aspire. Haydn sets down a quality marker for the future for this new genre. Chiaroscuro Quartet is renowned as a trailblazer for authentic performance of the classical string quartet using gut strings and period tuning. Despite their iconic status the ‘Sun’ quartets are famed for their flexibility, variety, unpredictability and sense of experimentation. This concert gives you the opportunity to hear close up this world-changing music played by four outstanding musicians.

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2pm Young Musicians Series

St Brendan's Hall



Magnolia Quartet

Haydn's Quartet in D major

Aoife Kavanagh's Every Cloud Passes Over

Smetana's Quartet No.1 'From My Life'

Magnolia Quartet is the third of the student Quartets taking part in the Festival masterclasses. Haydn’s Op.76 is the last complete set that he wrote, a set that stands at the apex of his collection of almost 70 quartets. Unlike his earlier intimate sets, Op.76 was composed for a concert hall rather than a private house or palace. Smetana’s autobiographical ‘From My Life’ was the outcry of a desperate composer, whose life was disintegrating due to deafness and approaching madness and who blames Fate for his suffering. The quartet will also premiere 'Every Cloud Passes Over' by Aoife Kavanagh, one of this year's Composition Competition winners, described by Deirdre Gribbin as 'a work of great beauty.'

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4pm Crespo Series

St Brendan's Church



Marmen Quartet

Debussy's String Quartet

Ravel's String Quartet

The very first Bantry chamber music festival in 1996 was part of the bi-centenary celebrations of the attempted French invasion of Ireland in Christmas week 1796. So music by French composers became one of our musical themes that year. This year also sees the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ravel. So a double excuse for an all-French programme of the ground-breaking quartets by Debussy and Ravel. These quartets often appear together on recordings but seldom in concert programmes. Debussy and Ravel both developed a distinct musical language totally separate from the Viennese tradition, it is a more delicate voice, at times almost otherworldly with a promise of magic.

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7.30pm Main Evening Concert

Bantry House


Lucy Fitz Gibbon and Doric Quartet

Dean's And Once I Played Ophelia IRISH PREMIERE


Mairéad Hickey, Brett Dean, Ella van Poucke and Nathalia Milstein

Fauré's Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor


Barry Douglas and Marmen Quartet

Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor

Brett Dean spent three years writing his opera ‘Hamlet’, which went on to triumphant performances in UK, Australia, Germany and USA. ‘And once I played Ophelia’ began as a preliminary study for the opera before it became his Second String Quartet with a text compiled by Matthew Jocelyn from the original play. It could also be called ‘A nightmare in five movements’, the clash of power and innocence with no prisoners being taken. Fauré’s ravishing C minor Piano Quartet is one of his many masterpieces. Its powerful sense of sweeping élan, the Parisian elegance of the scherzo and the darkness buried deep in the adagio bear all the assurance and craftsmanship of a master. Brahms Piano Quintet is another overwhelming masterpiece. It began life as a string quintet, but not satisfied with that he recast it for two pianos, which his friends rejected outright. Finally it took the form we all know and love, a power-crazed opening Allegro, a rapturously singing Andante, an excitingly explosive Scherzo and a strangely mysterious Finale that builds to an impetuous conclusion.

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