Ruby Tuesday will be performed at the Leuven Institute in Belgium on Culture Night,  Friday 24 September.  Culture Ireland are funding flights and accommodation and we are really looking forward it.

Please contact me at roseymour1 [at] eircom [dot] net if you are interested in the Ruby experience coming to your venue.  We have experienced the intimate setting of halls, hotels, community centres and so far our biggest theatre, the 400 seater Liberty Hall Theatre.  Act 2 has been written and we are negotiating the production of the full version of the play in 2010.  Watch this space.

Our Next Venue – New York – dates TBA!

“Ruby Tuesday” by Rose Henderson

“Ruby Tuesday” and “Roman Fever” in Killmallock

Sun 8 March 09 Liberty Hall Theatre – This performance was sponsored by Dublin City Council for International Women’s Day

Sat 12 July 08 Killmallock

Fri 11 July 08 St. John’s Theatre Listowel

Wed 25 June 08 Ringsend Community Centre

Fri 20 June 08 Kingston Hotel, DunLaoghaire

Mon 19 May 08 “Monday at 8.30 Club” Booterstown

2-26 April 08  Premier Bewleys’ Cafe Theatre

Performed by Rose Henderson (Father Ted) and Helen Norton (Paths to Freedom) Director Deirdre Molloy

In her gilded cage out in the leafy suburbs of Dublin, Mrs. T lives the middle class dream in a state of quiet desperation.

Every Tuesday, Ruby, her cleaning lady, calls to clean the house and blow away the cobwebs of Mrs. T’s life with sarcasm, wit and common sense.This keenly observed comedy brings together two women who can never be friends – just dependent on each other for laughter and sanity, while the tail end of Celtic Tiger Ireland disintegrates around them.

As their stories unfold we see how banter and laughter help them to deal with the petty betrayals of children, the cold indifference of a failed marriage … and the domestic catastrophes behind the double-glazing, spit and polish.

Gerry Colgan Irish Times 4 April

Mrs. T is an upper crust suburban housewife whose life has been difficult, leaving her vulnerble to introspection and neuroses. Ruby is the cleaning lady who adds dollops of common sense and realism to her routine chores.  Rose Henderson’s play juxtaposes these two characters to some effect.  Their short soliloquies and exchanges provide pleasant entertainment for the audience.  The author has much to offer.  There are neat alter ego tricks to exploit the possibilities of theatre as when both characters become Mrs. T, fending off false friendship in contrasting ways.  The actors – the author and the ebullient Helen Norton – hit the right notes to generate the laughter of recognition.

John McKeown Irish Daily Mail 11 April ****

Cleaning Lady makes a Fine Agony Aunt…

Verdict:  Spunky comic two-hander

Writer Rose Henderson has come up with something fresh and often very funny.  There’s the class reunion where Mrs. T assures her friends that she won’t say a word about her wonderful children, but can chatter about nothing else.  That’s followed by a demonstration of Mrs. T’s ability to slip into her ‘yogic state’ at will.  The personal griefs she unburdens on Ruby are treated more seriously, but there’s an irrepressible quality to Mrs. T’s laments, lit by unsettling flashes of honesty.  Henderson’s first play, deftly directed by Deirdre Molloy, is a lively, irreverent piece of writing.

Lucy White Metro 22 April ****

Initially threatened by loud drumming from Grafton Street, Ruby Tuesday found its own rhythm, weaving real-time conversations between the two women with seamless flashbacks – a pile of laundry was fashioned very convincingly into a bawling babe in arms when new-mother Mrs. T recalled a touching phone call with her own mum.  Rose Henderson wrote and stars, playing Mrs. T down to a, well, tea.  Inspired by women who work in the home, Henderson has mingled her own personal experiences with poetic licence for a heart-wrming tale of friendship in unlikely places.  Helen Norton meanwhile plays the pragmatic Ruby without ever resorting to working-class caricature.  Mrs. T might be just another middle-aged wife/mother/daughter trying to reclaim her identity after the kids have flown the nest but her plight is touchingly handled.  Issues of dieting, absent husbands, miscarriage, moody children and self-help books may point towards a very specific demographic, but the performances ensure Ruby Tuesday is a little gem anyone can enjoy.

Sara Keating Sunday Business Post 27 April ***

Henderson plays the  self-obsessed Mrs. T, whose secret weaknesses for cream buns and old-fashioned crooners make her more of a fallible heroine than a martyr.  Norton gives a delightfully physical performance as the dogged cleaning lady, Ruby.  The more difficult scenes of Henderson’s play are comprehensively executed, such as the scene where Norton becomes a stand-in for Mrs. T’s conscience, embodying Mrs. T’s inner voice to comic effect.  Some of the acerbic social observation in the play is penetrating and acute, such as the peculiarly female habit of celebrating other people’s problems while pretending to sympathise.  A packed house revelled in Henderson’s biting take on domesticity.

Client Counselling Competition 10 Feb 09

For the Dublin Final of this Competition, Rose Henderson, playing the part of Ruth Downey owner of Rawhide Tanning factory in Kilkenny, was asked to present trainee solicitors with a very difficult moral dilemma.  She was hoping to transfer her assets to her husband to avoid paying a substantial fine as a result of a chemical leak from her factory.  This competition was played in real time in front of judges and an audience, and the winners go forward to the all-Ireland final in Cork before going on to LasVegas.

A play reading in Blanchardstown Library on Friday 24 October 10.30am.  Rose reading the part of Bernarda.

Director Dylan Tighe is conducting a development project to work on a new version of The House of Bernarda Alba with traveller women in Blanchardstown.  The play will be updated to a present day halting site, transposing the idiom to that of present day travellers, and eventually Dylan plans to direct a production with travellers as performers.

As part of the project, a reading of the original play will be presented to the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Project so that the women will get a sense of the original play before making it their own.

Independent Youth Theatre

Rose was invited to give a physical theatre workshop at the Independent Youth Theatre in Rathmines.  30 16 -18 year olds worked-out, warmed up, marched in spirals, strengthened their spacial awareness.  Who has the power?  Who is subservient?  What happens when they meet?  Eye contact – keeping it real – making decisions – avoiding “face acting”.  Their marching band left us all whooping.

Rose Henderson appeared as Sister Assumpta in two episodes of Father Ted: 

“Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading” Episode 8 (26 APR 96)

It’s Lent and Father Ted has decided to give up smoking, Father Dougal has given up rollerblading and Father Jack has been forced, against his will, to give up the drink. Their sacrifices prove to be diffcult to cope with, so Ted calls in Sister Assumpta to supervise their self-sacrifice. She proves to be an out-and-out sadist but when they catch her eating their chocolate Easter eggs, they get rid of her by sending her to sort out their rivals on Rugged Island.

And God Created Woman Episode 5 (19 MAY 95)

Polly Clarke, a famous erotic novelist, (played by Gemma Craven) pays a visit to Craggy Island. Father Ted gets the (mistaken) impression that she has taken a fancy to him. Sister Assumpta and her group of nuns take action to ensure that Ted and Polly are kept apart.  Sadly his 30 second mass is a huge disappointment and they manage to enlist Polly Clarke to join their ranks.

Tonight Wicklow Arts will host a live night at Wicklow Sailing Club featuring new material from the comic play “Ruby Tuesday” written and performed by Rose Henderson.

The Old Man’s Hat – Dalkey Heritage Centre

Rose Henderson, Michele Forbes and Owen Roe perform Christmas literary stories from around the world.