World premiere of new show in Athlone

LipZinc Theatre is excited to announce their new one-man show 'Finding Joseph', written and directed by our Artistic Director Tzarini Meyler. The theatre company is delighted to be partnering with the Athlone Family Resource Centre for this production, who are kindly providing us with the venue for our premiere. The show will have its world premiere on September 11 at the Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone.

'I believed I could enter someplace only Superman could go'. It was 1969 and the world was alight with flower power, space travel and rock 'n' roll stars. But deep in the heart of the Irish Midlands, one little boy was busy creating a daydream of his own. Meet Joseph, one of Ireland's many forgotten babies with no Mammy to his name. Born and raised in a children’s home, where cruelty and neglect were rife, he grew up believing the bullies' taunts - that he was a changeling swapped at birth.

Forever feeling like an outsider, imagination became his only refuge. Armed with tales of the outside, hand-me-down comic books and religious icons all around, Joseph invented his own brand of fairy tales.

But what happens when that little boy grows up? It's a new millennium, but instead of space talk, Ireland is abuzz with news, names, numbers. And they're surfacing like a ghost ship. How does an adult make sense of his once hushed-up existence?

Join Joseph as he dives into memories and childhood fantasy, to reclaim his story and build himself up from scratch.

'Finding Joseph' is an uplifting experience for the senses. Combining sharp new writing with physical theatre and installation art, it is visually striking, haunting, funny and magical. Step into Joseph’s world, and take a different look at Ireland’s dark past.

'Finding Joseph' is performed by actor and musician Fia Rua (Eoghan Burke).

Tzarini Meyler is a playwright, actor and director from Cork, Ireland. She has a degree in English and Drama from UCD and an MA in Acting from the Institute of the Arts Barcelona. Her writing/directing credits include: Talking Icons; Talking Tarot; Pheromone; Hamlet, UCD Astra Hall; Venus by Candlelight, El Gin Tub, Barcelona; Dolly, Edinburgh Fringe; Mad Cats and Divas, Galway Fringe; Sugar Mice, Scene and Heard; Daddy was a Boogie Man, Galway Fringe.

LipZinc Theatre was founded in 2016, conceived through a need to make work that is truthful to the artist and vital to the audience. The company puts the unheard characters of this world centre stage, to tell the tales untold. They keep the spectator engaged with moments of stillness and chaos intertwined with humour and depth. Life is never only one thing – the company wants their shows to find the sadness in beauty, and the joy in disorder.