Rail Theatre presents ‘Shakers’

Shakers is an award-winning play by John Godber which Mullingar’s Rail Theatre company is staging in the Mullingar Arts Centre on Friday and Saturday, October 8 and 9.Featuring local starlets Siobhan Murphy, Olga Aughey, Niamh O’Shea and Jemma McNamee as Adele, Carol, Nicki and Mel - four waitresses who work in an upmarket cocktail bar in present day Dublin, this hilariously funny and fast-paced piece takes a look at the lives of the four girls and their aspirations, behind the glitz and the glamour of the cocktail bar.Poignant in parts, Shakers is a challenging play requiring the four actors to become a multitude of other characters entering the bar. As the story unfolds, we see how these four friends have taken to waitressing in desperation but who also have wit and resilience enough to never let any of the colourful characters they come across escape their satire unscathed. In theatrically heightened moments, the women play the roles of men and women alike, covering not only their nights at Shakers but also the lives of four other working women in Dublin.Always at the source of their satire are the men who take them for granted or, worse, abuse them. Against this backdrop of postmodern Dublin life are kaleidoscopic scenes of hilarity and depravity. Tart-tongued and irreverent, the lives of all of these women are put in painful perspective by the doubling of their roles which draws attention to the economic and social prejudices affecting all women, not just the fighters we meet at Shakers. Four struggling waitresses try to have a go of it against their customers, bosses and dates alike, using humour, role playing and all out rage to ward off the hopelessness that is Shakers.This is one not to be missed! Tickets on sale now from the Mullingar Arts Centre box office on 044 9347777 or from reception on Mount Street.