The Rare Oul Times in Antrim

ANTRIM Borough Council's Cultural Services Section continues the off-site programme, by bringing the smash-hit play The Rare Oul Times to The Ramble Inn.

The action takes place in John Ryan's famous Bailey Pub in Duke Street, Dublin, where the audience are on-lookers as two of Ireland's most outrageous and notorious drinkers and literary figures, Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh, discuss their successes, failures and love lives to date in 1950s Dublin.

The energetic and pacey dialogue highlights the complexities of both men – their fiery temperaments, their love of the written and spoken word and their frustrated longings for recognition.

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Emphasising their different backgrounds, the audience comes face to face with the streetwise Behan from the Dublin tenements and Kavanagh, the impoverished Monaghan farmer, upbringings that informed their talents as playwright and poet.

The Rare Oul' Times is a play that started out in late 1999, with no pretensions of any greatness or indeed of travelling far outside the writer's native County Down.

However, the unexpected success of the opening shows took the production to a wider audience. The success story has continued in various venues throughout Ireland and as far a field as the US, where it received a rapt reception.

Nomadic Theatre Company presents The Rare Oul Times at The Ramble Inn on Thursday, February 11 at 8pm.

Tickets cost 6/ 4 concession and are available from Reception on 028 9448 1338.

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