Acts of comedy, acts of charity – Changing Times

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DINNER cabaret is enjoying a revival in Limerick as a stimulating theatre format. Following on from The Locke Barโ€™s โ€˜Old Time Irish Radio Showโ€™ and CentreStageโ€™s โ€˜Waiting on Loveโ€™, Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel is the venue for a September night of food, fundraising and fun. The latest venture is undertaken by Changing Times Theatre Company, which broached its take on dinner cabaret last year at Absolute Hotel to good applause.

โ€œOur plays this time are โ€˜Melodyโ€™ by Deirdre Kinahan and โ€˜Whatโ€™s for Aftersโ€™ by David Tristram,โ€ artistic director of the company, Jean Fay tells us. โ€œChanging Times is staging these in Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel as a fundraiser for the Mid-Western Hospital Development Trustโ€™s breast cancer unit. Each year we want to do one project for charity and 2010โ€™s was Special Olympics. The dinner cabaret takes place on Friday September 23 at 8pm when we will stage the two shows first and then enjoy a two course dinner at the hotel.
โ€œTickets are โ‚ฌ25 for the meal and plays and we expect to contribute โ‚ฌ10 of that to the hospital fundโ€.
โ€˜Melodyโ€™ is a two-hander directed by David Fielding.ย  Changing Times gives us a thumbnail sketch of the plot: โ€œTwo lonely souls, a bachelor and a widow, discover that they share many common interests – classical music, ham and cheese sandwiches and massage parloursโ€.
It stars Caitriona Stack and Damien Pilkinton.
Jean Fay describes it and โ€˜Whatโ€™s for Afterโ€™s, directed by Suzie Oโ€™Brien, as โ€œideal for the evening, two short, gentle, comedy romancesโ€. Tristramโ€™s play is about a bored middle aged couple who are reluctant hosts to a younger, wilder pair who come bearing whiskey. Noel Dillon, Kim Brown, Mark McGee, Eukaria Oโ€™Grady and Evelyn Kileen McCrann are cast by Oโ€™Brien.
Thereโ€™s plenty on the agenda of Friday 23 to amuse men and women with the prospect of luscious food to charm the gags. โ‚ฌ25 tickets selling at the Carlton and through Jean Fay, based at St Munchinโ€™s College, Corbally.

Support this theatre evening of comedy, dinner and charity on Friday September 23. Pictured left: Noel Dillon, Kim Brown, Mark McGee, Eukaria Oโ€™Grady and Evelyn Kileen McCrann in rehearsal.

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