Encore Productions celebrate 25 years with a medieval classic in Dundalk

Martin Hanley and Olivia McGinnity | Supplied

placeholder image — Martin Hanley and Olivia McGinnity | Supplied

Encore Productions marks 25 years with Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales on stage in Dundalk

To celebrate their 25th Year of ground breaking theatre, Encore Productions have put together a truly historical show.

Unfinished at the time of his death in 1400, ‘The Canterbury Tales’ was the first great poem to be written in what became modern English. In this work, Geoffrey Chaucer hugely expanded the language in terms of vocabulary, style and range. He did so just as printing techniques were being established - allowing his book to become one of the first best sellers of the medieval world.

The poem was revolutionary – a cast of colourful characters from all walks of life, rich and poor, meet in a pub on their way to make pilgrimage at Canterbury Cathedral. To shorten the road they agree to a story telling competition. So begins a sequence of tales of every kind – talking animals and magic, crooked millers and drunken students, thieves, plague and vengeful maidens.

Had Chaucer lived to complete the poem it would have been truly vast- with each of the twenty or so pilgrims telling two poems on the way to Canterbury and two on their way back to the Tabard Inn – the pub in London where the poem began. Even as it is, the range of the tales is dazzling, turning on a sixpence from saints to sinners, carpenters to cockerels, from the sacred to the profane.

The visuals employed in this multimedia production are breathtaking. The convincing medieval costume by Eileen Johnson is framed perfectly by the visionary films created by Dara McKluskey. Drawing on contemporary maps, landscape and the work of medieval artists the films allow the audience to follow the Pilgrims as they travel 100 miles on foot along the Thames, crossing rivers, winding paths and making camp amongst dark forests haunted by highwaymen.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet himself, is played by Paddy Durnin while Dolores McKeever takes on the role of Alisoun –the famous Wife of Bath. Her tale is notable in its challenge to the traditional representation of Knights as being good and ‘chivalrous’. In her tale a Knight who has behaved badly toward a woman is taught a lesson in respect. This tale in particular continues to be studied in secondary schools – both for its language and for its broadly feminist approach to the age-old problem of misogyny.

The rest of the cast combines experience and enthusiasm in equal measure and features –, Moninna McCarthy, Jamie Linden, Olivia McGinnity, Therese Baxter, Mary Frances McAteer, Sandra Shields, Anita Guest, Oliver HAnratty, Rodger Zyro, Martin Hanley, Nicki Cormican, Brendan O’Shea, David Coyle, Aoife Lawless and Alex Tamuyeye. Stage management is by Rachel Tinniswood and Grainne O’ Hanlon – both of whom also act in the production. The Canterbury Tales is directed by Sandy Sneddon.

Encore’s actors all use RehabCare services in Dundalk and are Community Company in Residence with An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk. Over the years they have developed a unique process in which they research and explore plays, their authors and styles of theatre then adapt them in a way that both plays to the strengths and adds to the skills of the individual actors within the ensemble.

Working with limited physical resources and aiming to keep their shows light enough to tour they use film, light and atmospheric sound design to create an immersive world in which audiences can best enjoy the actor’s performances.

The Canterbury Tales is the latest in a long line of innovative productions from Encore. For a quarter of a century this group of actors living with intellectual disabilities have strived to create theatre of beauty and depth and share it with the widest possible audiences – showcasing their skills, creativity and ability.

Over the last 9 years alone they have tackled Shakespeare twice – The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, brought Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage’ and Durrenmatt’s ‘Visit’ to the Dundalk Stage and explored Greek theatre with their own piece ‘Aesop’. In 2024 they made a year-long journey into the world of Samuel Beckett creating ‘The Beckett List’. This show told Beckett’s life story and introduced audiences to his unique style of theatre. The play was toured, culminating in a performance at The Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College Dublin. 2024 also saw the group featured in a special show on RTE’s Nationwide. Last year’s Frankenstein adaptation faithfully brought Mary Shelly’s creature to life in a production that was faithful to the original novel and played to packed houses at An Táin Dundalk and at The Hawkswell Theatre in Sligo.