The Tinker's Curse

The lunchtime offerings at Bewleys Café Theatre have been pretty good over the last while, and their next show, in association with Focus Theatre, looks like continuing the trend. It comes from the pen of Michael Harding, who will be familiar to many as the author of that pleasingly lugubrious weekly Irish Times column concerning the ins and outs of life around Mullingar. Harding is also a well-known playwright, whose credits from the '80s and '90s include plays such as Una Pooka, Misogynist and Sour Grapes at the Abbey and Peacock. This latest show, which he also performs, is a newly adapted version of his 2007 play The Tinker’s Curse, a wry, humorous and moving tale about a traveller who climbs Croagh Patrick to do penance for the sins of a lifetime, revealing in the process the joys and sorrows of life on the side of the road. Previews Mon 15 March and opens Tues 16. www.bewleyscafetheatre.com