24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Latest Malaprop drama ‘Hothouse' coming to Wicklow stage
Praised as 'a lament for the present and an elegy for the past that keeps alight a flame of hope for the future' by the New York Times, after its run in the Big Apple, Hothouse is a fast-paced, poignant story of love, loss, and legacy set on an Arctic cruise ship. And the show takes you – the passenger – on a journey to bid farewell to the ice caps.
Following the off-Broadway debut in 2024, where Hothouse was selected as a New York Times critic's pick, the show tours to 10 venues nationwide, taking in Wicklow's Mermaid Arts Centre on Friday May 30 and Saturday May 31.
The production brings us on an odyssey that sails through an intergenerational tale complete with horny songbirds, a mad captain, and wanting to change, but not knowing how. Set on a cruise liner in the Arctic, where the ship's captain is pulling the strings, the play is performed by a cast of five. Together with its clever score, the play looks at the last 100 years in Ireland, and ahead to the next hundred, tackling climate breakdown with big ideas, a lot of laughs, and some truly grotesque cabaret musical numbers.
The play sees Ruth (in 1969) who refuses to eat sandwiches with lettuce in them. Ali in the present day goes on a cruise to say goodbye to the ice. Meanwhile, a parent 100 years in the future tells their child it gets better, even though we're pretty sure they're lying.
Hothouse is directed by Claire O'Reilly (Emma, The Abbey Theatre) and written by Carys D Coburn (Absent the Wrong, Verity Bargate Award Winner, Irish Times Theatre Award nominee for Citysong). The cast includes Bláithín MacGabhann (Dancing at Lughnasa at National Theatre London), Maeve O'Mahony (Abbey Theatre), Thommas Kane Byrne (Darklands, Kin, Derry Girls, Deadly Cuts) and Peter Corboy (Fair City).
Hothouse runs at the Mermaid Arts Centre on Friday May 30 and Saturday May 31. Tickets €20 from
