We are pleased to announce our partnership with Culture Ireland in bringing its acclaimed U.S. Touring production of Arán & Im to Memphis on Sunday, March 20 at 3:00 pm.

Translated from the Irish as Bread & Butter, Arán & Im is an interactive, surprising celebration of language, land, Irish food, and global unity with freshly-baked traditional sourdough bread for audience members to slice and spread with butter they churn from Irish cream.

Originally produced in association with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, Arán & Im explores the sublime beauty and oddness of potent 3,000-year-old words of landscape, terms of intuition and insight, and myriad phrases that bring to life the mysterious glory of the natural world.

Created, performed, and baked in real time on stage by creator Manchán Magan, this immersive piece of theatre (and bread) offers limited seating and runs for 70 minutes without intermission.

Arán & Im is made possible in Memphis by TSC’s Nancy R. Copp and the Sims Family Charitable Trust.

A few of the questions featured during the performance include:

What can the Irish word for the lonesomeness of a cow bereft of her calf, “diadhánach,” teach us about our current methods of food production?

Why does one need to orient oneself to the sun to give directions in Irish?

To what degree is the Otherworld embedded in words for “cancer”?

What is the word for the sound that horses make when they meet after an absence?

“We are honored to have this beautiful production in Memphis at TSC,” says Producing Artistic Director, Dan McCleary.  “The country of Ireland has invested in this international tour because Manchán uniquely creates a theatrical message of unity on stage by using the richness of Irish food practices and the other-wordly insights encoded in the Irish language.  It’s quite a spiritual revelation.  All the things we love at TSC!”

Manchán Magan is a broadcaster, travel writer, and playwright who wrote the Magan’s World column for The Irish Times for six years, and has written for The Guardian, The LA Times, and Washington Post.  He has received commissions to write plays from The Abbey Theatre, BBC, and Project Art Centre.  His bilingual plays have been nominated for numerous awards, including two Irish Times Theatre Awards, Fishamble New Writing Award, and Bewleys Café Theatre Award. He won the Walter Macken Taibhdhearc Drama award in 2014, and the Stewart Parker Irish Language Theatre Award in 2009.  In 2013, he won the Screen Directors Guild’s Outstanding Achievement Award for the 70 television documentaries he has presented, written, and produced on issues of world culture for TG4, RTÉ, History Channel & Travel Channel, and 16 radio programmes for RTÉ 1.  No Béarla, his documentary series about traveling around Ireland speaking only Irish, sparked international debate.  More recent TV series include Crainn na hÉireann and Cé a Chónaigh I Mo Theachsa? for TG4.  He has written two novels and five travel books.  He lives in his oak forest in a self-made hovel in Westmeath.  www.manchan.com

Box Office Information

Purchase tickets now and receive more information by calling TSC’s Box Office at (901) 759-0604 or going online here.

TSC’s Tabor Stage is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.

Tickets range from $15-$27, including tiered seating tickets for Seniors (age 62+) ranging from $20-$24 and tiered seating tickets for Students (age +/-22, with identification) ranging from $15-$20.

No refunds/exchanges.  House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain for access to cash bar.  Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee.  Free parking and covered drop-off area.

Season 14 Sponsors and Partners:

TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, Anne and Michael Keeney, Irene and Fred Smith, and the Memphis City Council.  TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.

TSC’s programming and outreach partners include University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Collierville Municipal School District, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Cities of Bartlett/Collierville/Germantown/Lakeland/Memphis, and the Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends.

About Tennessee Shakespeare Company:

Tennessee Shakespeare Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre and education organization in Memphis dedicated to live, diverse performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, as well as works of social significance by classical, Southern, and modern writers/composers; and to providing innovative educational and training programming in-person and online.

Founded in 2008 by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary, Tennessee Shakespeare Company is Memphis’ first and only professional, classical theatre.  In 2017, TSC purchased its first performing arts facility, which is being renovated into the state’s only permanent home for professional, year-round Shakespeare performance, education, and training.  The company is engaged in its Brave New World capital campaign with a goal of $9.2 million, of which nearly one-third has been raised.

TSC has engaged its community with 58 site-specific plays and events for over 52,000 patrons. Its ground-breaking Education Program has reached 120 schools across nine states, totaling over 275,000 student interactions. The Program has achieved a high regional and national profile, partners annually with most local school systems, and this year is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Midwest’s Shakespeare in American Communities grants: one for The Romeo and Juliet Project in underserved local schools, and the other for expanded residencies with local incarcerated youth.  TSC is one of just a handful of U.S. theatres to be awarded this grant for the third consecutive year.