LIMERICK writer and actor Isolde Fenton returns to her hometown this Saturday October 18, with her critically acclaimed one-woman show In a Bad Way at Belltable, following a triumphant run at Dublin Fringe.
The darkly comedic production, part of the Lasta Young Curator’s Programme, follows Grá, a young woman spiralling in her GP’s office as she convinces herself she’s suffering from every ailment imaginable—from blood clots to Foreign Accent Syndrome to “Bum Cancer” like “The Ginger One from Desperate Housewives”.
Through Grá’s frantic recounting of symptoms during her fifth visit to the doctor this month, the fast-paced show explores health anxiety, loneliness, and the body’s relentless keeping of score with both humour and tenderness.
For Fenton, the Belltable homecoming is particularly poignant. The Adare-raised artist first performed at the venue aged just 15. Now, as the theatre’s artist in residence, she returns with her own work. “To be creating and presenting something in my hometown, in a venue that shaped my earliest experiences of theatre, is both humbling and exhilarating,” she says.
The 2024 PJ O’Connor Radio Play Award winner—included in the Irish Examiner’s Ones to Watch list for 2025—trained at the Gaiety School of Acting and has performed at London’s West End. Her debut script, Chalk & Cheese, will premiere on RTÉ Drama On One this autumn.
In a Bad Way premiered at Cork’s Everyman Theatre in May before its Dublin Fringe run in September.
Limerick, Fenton notes, is vital to the story itself, with references to the city woven throughout the production. “The references to the city, the streets, the atmosphere—everything feels deeply personal,” Fenton explains.
