King Arthur, a semi-opera by Henry Purcell to a libretto by John Dryden

When the worst happens - such as war or climate disaster - what can we rely on? We can rely on community, connection, and our individual and collective resourcefulness.

This fresh and timely production of Henry Purcell's King Arthur sees a group of people coming together in a wild landscape (not so far from our world or our time) to tell the story of a triumph of love over force, of community over self-interest. They use what they have - whether it's an old piece of sheet metal left behind from a storm or a beautiful branch of a tree - to conjure up the fantastical and outsized adventures of kings, princesses, and all manner of magical creatures. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes funny, sometimes tender, sometimes dark. Through telling this story, the people in the woods discover that their own simple existence, unremarkable as it might be, is a precious resource that is worth celebrating and protecting.

RIAM Opera and IADT Dun Laoghaire present an ambitious, fully-staged production of Henry Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in TCD.

Conductor: David Adams
Director: Aoife Spillane-Hinks
Movement Director: Libby Seward
Cast and Orchestra: RIAM Tertiary Students
Set, Costume and Make-Up Design: Design for Stage and Screen, IADT
Lighting Design: Kevin Smith
Producer: Kathleen Tynan, RIAM

Presented in partnership with Design for Stage and Screen, IADT Dún Laoghaire