Fishamble Literary News

Irish Council for Bioethics Playwriting Competition

Jim Culleton, Siobhan O’Sullivan, Paul Meade and Gavin Kostick

Fishamble: The New Play Company is delighted to announce that the Jim McNaughton / TileStyle Bursary for Commissioned Artists 2009 was presented to Paul Meade commissioned by the Irish Council for Bio-Ethics.

The National Bio-Ethics Playwriting Competition was developed by The Irish Council for Bio-Ethics in partnership withFishamble: The New Play Company in order to establish a new link between science and the arts. The competition allowed for the exploration of challenging philosophical and medical themes in a theatrical form. It received over 120 entries which were submitted by amateur and established writers from as far afield as China and Brazil.

In January 2009, a first reading of Begotten Not Made by Paul Meade and directed by Jim Culleton was held at Farmleigh in Phoenix Park, Dublin, for an audience from the spheres of science, philosophy, the arts and legal professions. Further readings of the play were given for the Bar Council of Dublin and for TDs at Leinster House, and it is hoped to develop the play into a full production.

The play consists of three interwoven stories. The first, relates to a successful couple who are struggling to conceive a child through IVF; the second is the story of a married couple who are travelling to Switzerland for an assisted suicide; the third strand tells the story of a brother and sister, one of whom was born as a ‘saviour-sibling’ for the other, for the use of stem-cells.

The cast for readings of Begotten Not Made have included: Karen Ardiff, Barry Barnes, Cathy Belton, Anthony Brophy, Fiona Condon, Conor Delaney, Ruth Hegarty, Darragh Kelly, Janet Moran and Arthur Riordan.

For further details about the Irish Council of Bioethics please see www.bioethics.ie