About the Show

Annie is a 16-year-old Irish dancer from Dublin, and we meet her on the eve of the biggest competition of her life, the Irish Open Championships 1999. She charts us through the various successes and disappointments of her Irish dancing life. We share her mind-numbing commitment and burning desire to win the coveted Irish Open title. Will she win and, if so, in what way?

From the confines of every community hall in Ireland, Irish dancing champions are churned out at a massive rate. Medals and cups build up in drawing rooms and Riverdance swells a national pride, but the public aren’t privy to the blood, sweat and tears that pave the way to the first place podium.

Developed as part of Show in a Bag - an artist development initiative of Dublin Fringe Festival, Fishamble: The New Play Company, and Irish Theatre Institute, to resource theatre makers and actors.  

WINNER Best Theatre Script at the Writer’s Guild of Ireland ZeBBie Awards
WINNER Little Gem Award at Dublin Fringe Festival
NOMINATED Best Performer at Dublin Fringe Festival

About Fishamble

Fishamble discovers, develops and produces new plays of national importance with a global reach. It has toured its productions to audiences throughout Ireland and to 19 other countries. It champions the role of the playwright, typically supporting over 50% of the writers of all new plays produced on the island of Ireland each year. Fishamble has received many awards in Ireland and internationally, including an Olivier Award. Fishamble is funded by the Arts Council, Dublin City Council, and Culture Ireland.

About Margaret Mc Auliffe

Margaret Mc Auliffe is an actor/writer from Dublin. As an actor she has worked with The Collective, Rough Magic, Collapsing Horse, Fishamble, The Abbey Theatre and many more. As part of the 'Show in a Bag' initiative for the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2016 she wrote, produced and performed her smash hit, one-woman show, The Humours of Bandon. The show won the Bewley’s Little Gem Award and Margaret was nominated as Best Performer at the Dublin Fringe Awards, 2016.

As a writer, Margaret won the 2017 ZeBBie award for Best Theatre Script, was a recipient of the Pavilion Theatre’s Patron Artists’ Bursary 2017, a member of the Irish Theatre Institute's Six in the Attic programme and was selected as part of Fishamble's A Play for Ireland initiative 2018. In 2020 she was awarded funding towards writing a new play through Fingal County Council. She's currently in development with Treasure Entertainment on a feature adaptation of The Humours of Bandon with Screen Ireland.