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It's dark, you're sitting on stage in a rocking chair, and a woman's voice booms out...

Get ready to experience a Samuel Beckett radio play on the Abbey Theatre stage.

IT’S DARK. YOU’RE sitting on the Abbey Theatre stage. Above and in front of you are rows of yellow incandescent bulbs.

You’re surrounded by people sitting on rocking chairs.

A woman’s voice suddenly booms out.

This isn’t a strange dream – it’s a new unique show from Pan Pan Theatre which is bringing Samuel Beckett, and, in an unusual step, the audience onto the stage.

Production image Ros Kavanagh Ros Kavanagh

Rather than sitting in the stalls, the audience get to sit on the stage and listen to a Samuel Beckett radio play which has been specially recorded by Pan Pan. The play, All That Fall, was written in 1956.

The story was so close to Beckett’s own life that it sent him into a “whirl of depression”. At the centre of the tale is Maddy Rooney, a Foxrock woman who is off to meet her husband from the train. But things don’t go as planned – and you end up questioning what’s real, and what’s in Maddy’s mind.

The play also led to the founding of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (which was behind the Doctor Who theme), because of the new technologies that were invented during its production.

Production image Ros Kavanagh Ros Kavanagh

Rather than go for the oldschool approach, Pan Pan made a new recording using digital technology.

“In a way it’s like an installation of this radio play,” said Gavin Quinn, co-director of Pan Pan.

“We made this environment, a dreamlike environment which the audience experiences while listening to or being part of that radio play. It’s psychologically absorptive. It really activates you when you’re in this room all listening to this Beckett play together. The audience are part of it - almost like a social sculpture.”

The lights even change in response to what’s happening.

“People enjoy the atmosphere – they find it a comfortable, exciting space to be in,” said Quinn.

An interesting whodunnit

The floor of the stage is covered with a giant carpet that looks like it comes from a child’s bedroom. Nothing about the experience – from the design of the rug to the placing of the lights and chairs – is incidental.

There are even some smells which drift in while you sit back.

“It’s a very unusual piece and that’s why we decided to do it in this way. It works on the basis that it’s very immediate,” said Quinn.

The play has “a very special piece in the Beckett canon”, he added. “It’s a really enjoyable, interesting whodunnit - it’s a literary mystery with a thriller ending to it.”

Production image Ros Kavanagh Ros Kavanagh

If you were ever curious about Beckett’s output, (particularly since it’s 110 years since he was born) but unsure where to start, this is a chance to experience a more accessible work of his. “You can appreciate all of Beckett’s sense of humour and his gift for language,” said Quinn.

In an era where the smartphone can take up much of our attention, it’s also a chance to just sit there and experience something entirely new, without distraction.

Quinn describes the play as “incredibly absorbing”, with microphone techniques used to ensure that the characters’ voices are heard loud and clear.

“The joke that radio is a very visual medium – that is true,” he said. “You can visualise these characters in situations where you don’t actually see them.”

All That Fall runs from 11 – 20 February , with performances at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm and 9pm (except tomorrow, where performances are 7pm and 9pm only). More information on the Abbey Theatre website.

Read: Never-before-seen Abbey Theatre papers show how it fought against censorship>

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    Mute Filthpig
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    Jan 18th 2014, 9:50 AM

    A charities regulator is long overdue, but it should have teeth. It shouldn’t be just another useless bag of wind like the financial regulator.
    Pay for employees should be defined rather than just arbitrarily made up by some board.

    70
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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Jan 18th 2014, 10:56 AM

    Only that The Dáil Committee’s and the Opposition Benches uncovered the level of blatant corruption in these bodies by Government appointed supporters / hacks , the Taoiseach and Ministers concerned , would have continued to have sat on their hands and done nothing !
    Note even yesterday – when two Senior Ministers – Shatter & Reilly , issued two contradictory statements as to when they intended to act on the corruption concerned ?
    Isn’t it extraordinary that this Government is so off kilter , that the Opposition in the Dáil have to now lead?
    Time for this Coalition of Misfits stepped aside and call an Election and allow the Country be led by real people who care about our future , as opposed to those with their snouts in the trough!

    48
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    Mute Roland 303
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:05 AM

    Well said Eddie.

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    Mute Greg Devoy
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:17 AM

    Just as an aside, i have always believed that any charity that is collecting should have to state clearly what exact percent of your contribution is going to the cause and how much is admin etc,
    Also their website should carry the names and wages of ALL board members,,this should be a condition of their employment to assure transparency

    If you were to see somebody on the street shaking a bucket and collecting for charity,,and lets say an hour later you were to see the same walk into a pub empty the bucket onto the counter and procede to drink the money,,,you could walk into the local Garda station and report what you believed to be fraud/crime and ask them to investigate ,, what is the difference here ??????

    At least the junkie on the street stealing actually needs the money whats the likes of this lots excuse,, there already raking it in ,,,, filth

    29
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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:28 AM

    Greg – you raise a very valid point – for years now I have been very concerned about many of the nondescript names on these bucket shakers outside big shops/banks etc .
    A family member has absolute evidence of a scam one that operated in the Cork area for years – getting “Garda” permits in various Towns , sending big groups of Students in as workers on the day – workers get their cut and the money is then lodged to personal account of the scammer fully legally registered “Charity” !
    Time for this Country to get real about this corruption too .

    22
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    Mute scaldbag
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:28 AM

    The sooner SF take the reigns of this country the better.

    66
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    Mute Ciaran O'Mara
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:40 AM

    Eddie, I am not sure I understand: how did the Government come to appoint supporters/hacks to these charitable bodies? The answer is that it never did. Surely the problem is that all these private charity boards are self appointing self perpetuating cliques? In the case of the CRC, the board seems to have had very close links to the Haughey and Ahern circles for decades. At least you have to give the HSE and the Minister some credit for sweeping them away and putting an independent Administrator in charge. He was the guy who unearthed all the revelations this week about Kiely’s pay off.

    7
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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:51 AM

    Ciaran – FF/Greens were the Government then – it’s the whole principal of All Government Parties supplying their Members and financial supporters, on to these Bodies – rather then genuine appointments on merit , that I and so many others , are objecting to !
    As for Minister Reilly uncovering the whole horrific pay yourself out of the trough mentality – I think the Ministers contribution to this has been peripheral to that of the investigative work of the multiple Party represented Dáil Committees , which has been splendid to date – real Democracy in action , as opposed to Government Ministers hiding behind Freedom of Information Act , to prevent FOI ?

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    Mute Ciaran O'Mara
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    Jan 18th 2014, 12:15 PM

    Eddie, in fairness to FF and the Greens, they didn’t appoint them either. Charities have always operated beyond almost any oversight or control. What seems to have happened with the CRC is that Lady Valerie Goulding, being herself a FF candidate, appointed various people over decades from FF to the charity she founded. In more recent times the board members and senior execs seem to have had very close connection to Bertie’s mafia. They appointed each other.
    What we got before Xmas was a very partial bit of the truth, I think only 200k was owned up to.
    It was the HSE appointed Administrator who was able to produce the goods to the PAC this week.
    The PAC members didn’t themselves unearth material. There’s a good piece by Fiach Kelly in the Times today which shows that a lot of the PAC contributions were just showboating and far from being forensic.

    13
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    Mute Ollie O'Cleirigh
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    Jan 18th 2014, 1:12 PM

    It’s still a Fianna Fáil “jobs for the boys” scenario. This is only one example that was exposed by chance really.

    Fianna Fáil will obliterate the fabric of society if let back in. They feel an entitlement to our country and it’s resources. We have seen too many examples of this. I would liken FF to the Muslim Brotherhood – a terrorist organisation. Financial terrorists.

    20
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    Mute Driv ElMachine
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    Jan 18th 2014, 1:28 PM

    Eddie – you are talking shite. It’s not easy to become a registered charity.

    Greg- no charity board members are permitted to be paid in the country.

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    Mute Niallers
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    Jan 18th 2014, 4:14 PM

    No matter how good a Sinn Fein bill is the government will have noting to do with it. The government will have a go at Sinn Fein instead of debating the bill. If Sinn sein Fein say black the government will say white.

    19
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    Mute Chris White
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    Jan 18th 2014, 6:01 PM

    Greg

    All board members of charities are volunteers and are not paid. In some exceptional circumstances the CEO of the organisation may be a board member but they require permission from the revenue commission to be able to serve in such a capacity. St Vincent’s healthcare Group is unusual in having three senior staff on their board. However they don’t get paid anything extra to do so.

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    Mute Chris White
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    Jan 18th 2014, 6:05 PM

    That is corrrect

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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Jan 18th 2014, 6:46 PM

    Chris , I don’t think that getting paid is the issue – they in any case get vouched “expenses” . But the point that is being asked is whether any of these people are put in places, by virtue of Party allegiance and then go on to make criminal sized payouts to employees of these Charities , off the books , from a taxable perspective . Then the reluctance of them to make full disclosure , having buried illegal payments in the bookkeeping exercise , of monies raised for other goodly purposes by a Charitable voluntary donations?

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    Mute Michael Garett
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    Jan 18th 2014, 10:40 AM

    Leave it to Mary Lou and Sinn Fein. They know how to sort out the sh1te.

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    Mute mcbab
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    Jan 18th 2014, 10:55 AM

    Don’t understand this bill? This is already in hand.

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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:05 AM

    Yes – McBab – by two contradictory Government Statements yesterday by two different Ministers – one stated “soon” and the other said “the end of the year” ?
    Wouldn’t it be more relevant at this time, to have it introduced NOW ?

    26
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    Mute Random_paddy
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    Jan 18th 2014, 10:07 AM

    Not sure why the revenue can’t just do this, they already manage their tax affairs, why do we need the expense of another quango?

    34
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    Mute padser123
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    Jan 18th 2014, 9:51 AM

    It’s amazing the foresight they see for each other at the top of the ladder………being paid off early and the like………however’ poor Joe at the bottom finds it hard to even get statutory redundancy!

    33
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    Mute D
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    Jan 18th 2014, 12:34 PM

    Not a SF fan at all but Mary Lou was the star of the political week.

    31
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    Mute David Giles
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    Jan 18th 2014, 3:34 PM

    I have read the Charities (Amendment) Bill 2014. It is a very brief Bill which adds the advancement of human rights to the list of charitable activities covered by the Charities Act 2009 which is already law and requires the implementation of the 2009 Act in full by 31st May 2014. Quite simply, the Bill is asking the Dail to implement legislation already passed in 2009. However the Government has already pledged to do that. The Bill is therefore unnecessary.

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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Jan 18th 2014, 6:37 PM

    I personally feel that it’s extremely important to keep the heat turned up on these Ministers and Government and introduce the Bills implementation, as I will explain .
    The Health Minister, Reilly, yesterday morning, announced, that he needed time to think about how he would tackle the crisis and indicated that he would take time “this year” to see what he might recommend.
    Meanwhile late yesterday evening , The Justice Minister , Shatter indicated , having heard that SF were looking for debating time, so as to introduce their implementation Bill of the 2009 Legislation , that Government had now decided to act in the short term !
    It is my belief that they would , as usual , have further shillyshallied and kicked to touch to delay , had the Opposition not put it up to them .

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    Mute David Giles
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:14 AM

    The Charity Commission for England and Wales was established in 1853. The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland was established in 2009. I am quite amazed that no similar body has existed in the Republic of Ireland. I welcome the fact that the Government is acting to remedy this important matter. The new legislation should apply to all charities and other voluntary organisations that raise money from the public including churches and political parties.

    18
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    Mute O'Reilly
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    Jan 18th 2014, 10:37 AM

    Why are Sinn Fein introducing a bill when the gov has already announced setting up a charity regulator? Airtime?

    16
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    Mute Roland 303
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    Jan 18th 2014, 10:49 AM

    Is there any chance you could leave out the Sinn Féin bashing just for one story?

    45
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    Mute O'Reilly
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:51 AM

    Eh, its a SF story? The regulator has been announced. Why debate a bill when decision is made? Optics maybe?

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    Mute Eoin Ryan
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:35 AM

    Does anyone know what’s different between the Sinn Fein bill and the Charities Act of 2009 that created the Charity Regulator?
    The problem since then has been failure to commence that Regulator. Even if it were in place, what powers would it have had to stop this? Genuine question.

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    Mute David Giles
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:52 AM

    Good point Eoin. The Charities Act 2009 legislated for the establishment of the Charities Regulatory Authority. The establishment of the Authority was delayed until financial sanction for the necessary funding was granted by the Department of Finance to the Department of Justice and Equality in July 2013. This is documented in press releases dated 10th July 2013 and 17th January 2014 which are available if you search for “Charities Regulatory Authority” on the website of the Department of Justice and Equality. It appears that the necessary steps to establish the Authority, appoint a board and a CEO are already in hand. The cost of running the Charities Commission for Northern Ireland is evidently about £800,000 per year so funding a similar body on the Republic may be several times that. But it will be money well spent if the new Authority is truly independent of control by government or other vested interests and regulates all voluntary organisations to whom the public donates money including charities, churches, political parties and sporting organisations.

    9
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    Mute Richard Devlin
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:56 AM

    Stop discussing and Act Immediately, they are all saying what is coming out is wrong and a regulator is needed, so stop with all the posturing and just set it up now. Call all TDs into dail chamber monday morning, vote, Regulatory body set up by Friday, Simples.

    11
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    Mute Eoin Ryan
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    Jan 18th 2014, 12:19 PM

    If they tried to set it up by Friday, how would they run an open and proper recruitment process? How could they get good value in anything if they needed to open for business in 6 days?

    7
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    Mute Richard Devlin
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    Jan 18th 2014, 6:59 PM

    I said the Regulatory body set up by Friday. Where there is a will there is a way, enough people sitting around backbenches in that place doing absolutely F All, that they could sit on the Reg Body and get the ball rolling, call all Charity Boards in and tell them to bring all their accounts in immediately, the longer this drags on the more time given to creative accounting. Then start an Independent Recruitment with no input from any Govt officials.

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    Mute Michael Anthony Coen
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    Jan 18th 2014, 11:43 AM

    Missing the big picture

    When you give to a charity you give to what you think is the name above the door

    For example the CRC has the CRC and the friends of the CRC

    Or St Michaels House they have St Michaels House Group , St michaels house , st michaels house association , Nortbrook industries just to mention a few

    So the question who gets the money and what do they do with it

    Who gets to vote the board in !

    Who sits on the remuneration boards that pay the directors

    Who vets the process

    Why the HSE can’t do anything ! Ill tell you why the hse can’t go into a private company and tell them what to do even though they give the CRC 16 million and St Michaels 89 million

    What can the public do sit back and watch them take take and take

    So who is next in the spotlight as the CRC is only the first

    9
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    Mute Michael Garett
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    Jan 18th 2014, 12:30 PM

    Don’t suppose the regulator could lead by example and do this job for the average industrial wage?

    8
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