The New Theatre presents Gazing at Gaza for one performance only on Feb 12th.
Captain Amy Farrell is back in Lebanon, assigned to escort a ministerial delegation. The minister abruptly announces Ireland’s withdrawal from the Golan Heights, shocking troops and sparking concerns about the nation’s changing priorities. A fraught journey with a government advisor unaware of Ireland’s history of military disengagement and a PR strategist trying to salvage his career. Amy uncovers a deeper shift: Ireland abandoning its UN commitments in favour of European Union policies. With journalists echoing government spin, Captain Amy Farrel faces the erosion of ideals she’s dedicated her life to defending. A tense exploration of duty, politics, and the power of truth in a world of manipulation.
By Gerard Humphreys
Directed by James O’Donnell
Performed by Barbara Dempsey, Amy O’Dwyer and Darragh Humphreys.
More about Gerard Humphreys:
Humphrey’s first play, Éiric, was produced by An Taibhdhearc in Galway. Séanadh/Lockdown, his play about war and remembrance, received a BBC Stewart Parker award. His Play One Para about the killing of the civil rights marchers in Derry premiered on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 2022 in the New Theatre in Dublin.
His play Norah about a sister burying her dead hunger striker in the face of Church and State opposition was in the classic Antigone (Sophocles) vein. Per Emer O’Kelly in the Sunday Independent “In Norah the classic tradition is married seamlessly with the narrative of the
Troubles.”.
In the critically acclaimed Ledwidge, Humphreys explored the poet Francis Ledwidge’s personal conflict during World War I and his early life as a trade union organiser, bringing to life the adventurous spirit of Ireland’s greatest war poet. His play The Boys about young travellers falling foul of the criminal justice system premiered in 2015. When the Government closed the theatres in the middle of the pandemic in 2020 the New Theatre staged Humphrey’s play about Jacqueline Kennedy, Jackie, at the W.B. Yeats Memorial amphitheatre in St. Stephen’s Green.
Humphreys, a former Army Captain, is the author Clocha Ceangailte, (Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar Teo, 1994) an account of his time serving with Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon. The author Gerard Humphreys a former Army Captain, served in the United Nations and was a member of an international incident team deployed to report on violations of international law and humanitarian law during the Israeli/withdrawal or as termed by the Force Commander General Callaghan, the redeployment of Israeli forces from Lebanon 1984-85. He also served as a platoon commander with UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon).
Barbara Dempsey: Barbara first worked with Gearoid Humphreys on Lockdown in 2015/16, she toured with Ledwidge in 2017, commemorating the war poet on the centenary of his death and performed, the following year, in Humphrey’s acclaimed Norah, a drama set around the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland. Barbara is delighted to be working with Gearoid & the New Theatre again.
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Amy O’Dwyer is an actor and producer whose work spans theatre, film, television, and audio. Some of her theatre credits include Jackie, Peter Pan, and national tours of Ledwidge Lockdown, and Madame De Markievicz on Trial. She has appeared in Fair City (RTÉ) and Making Dad’s Army (BBC), and has acted in and produced award-winning audio projects.
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Darragh Humphreys is an actor and secondary school teacher from County Dublin. He is best known for playing the titular ‘Fran Costello’ in the TV mockumentary “Fran Assistant Manager” which was broadcast on Setanta television and TV3 (2009-11).Inspired by the series ,a feature length film “Fran the Man” is due for imminent release. Darragh is a fluent speaker of Gaeilge and frequently provides voice over services for television and radio.
Cast and Creatives
