Anne Gildea returns to Civic with acclaimed comedy show

ANNE Gildea is chuffed to be returning to the Civic,with ‘How to Get the Menopause and Enjoy It’. Since launching in the Viking Theatre on Valentine’s Day 2022, the response to Anne’s show has been overwhelmingly positive, writes Ryan Butler.

Now in its third year on the road, her combination of gut busting comedy, breath-taking honesty and startling information, has wowed audiences the length and breadth of Ireland and across the water to the UK.

Many audience members return several times to experience her unique brand of humour and heart. Anne will also be touring with preeminent menopause expert, Dr Louise Newson, as part of her ‘Hormones and Menopause: The Great Debate’ show.

From Portsmouth to London’s West End to Inverness, this 35-date tour will be all over the UK in autumn and winter 2024.

Previously, Anne was a co-founder and long-time creative and performer with The Nualas (1995–2018), Ireland’s top shiny-dressed, musical-comedy girl- trio.

Their unique brand of intricately-arranged, self-penned song and provocative chat about current stuff proved to be a huge success.

This week, we sat down with Anne to discuss the show, which will be performing in the Civic on June 29.

What inspired the show?

I left the Nualas in 2018 and shortly after that, as you know, the pandemic happened and we were all stuck at home.

I had plenty of time to think during that period and I came up with the idea that I wanted to write something about the female experience.

I wasn’t sure which direction to take it in but my partner Paul gave me an idea to explore menopause and we could do a bit of a satire on that.

We started doing a lot of research into menopause because we wanted to make sure the show was perfect; we wanted to do it right.

It’s kind of based on my personal experience growing up as a woman in Ireland in the 1970s and just pointing out the carry-on back then and how gas it is looking back with today’s standards in mind.

Paul wrote and directed the show and I am so grateful to him for that; I get to act the maggot and make silly jokes and there’s even a bit of singing involved.

Win-win!

How long has it been in production?

We first performed it on Valentine’s Day 2022 in the Viking in Clontarf and we were overwhelmed by the audience response; they loved it and that really made us realise this production had legs and made us want to keep going with it.

Since then, we’ve taken it to London, Luxemburg and Belfast, and we’ve been having a blast the whole time!

Have there been any particular highlights or challenges involved?

Doing it during lockdown was a bit of a challenge because it took a while to come to fruition and there was always a bit of doubt as to whether people would come to see it.

It’s a 2 hour performance, so that was quite a long writing process.

We also struggled a bit with how to adapt the script for the stage and approach it from a theatre perspective.

Luckily, we got some practice by performing it in little clubs and community theatres.

What drew you to Tallaght?

I was born in Manchester, raised in Sligo, trained in London, and I currently have lived in Dublin for many years.

I have performed in the Civic before and loved it; I’ve always thought the audiences were fantastic.

Funnily enough, it was actually in the wake of my performances at the Civic that I heard men had paid tickets to go with their wives to see a show about menopause and loved it!

I think the Civic stage is a brilliant space to work in and gives me a lot of freedom to move around which I am also a fan of.

What is next for you?

I will be touring with Dr. Louise Newson as part of her ‘Hormones and Menopause: The Great Debate’ show; we’ll be taking that on tour in the UK this autumn and winter.

Paul and I currently have more work on the horizon; writing another show about female themes under the working title ‘Further Adventures in Womaning’.

It’s about how each generation of women is different than the last and how each generation has different impressions and ideas of what it means to be a woman.

It’s been in the works for the past 18 months and we’re hoping to showcase it in the Viking Theatre in the last week of August.

We are also hoping to book a venue next year and possibly take it on tour throughout the UK and Ireland; the Civic will definitely be one of our stops anyway!

Who would you and Paul like to thank for helping with this tour?

We would like to thank all venues that have hosted us since Valentine’s Day 2022, especially Laura and Andy from the Viking for first taking a chance on us, and giving us those two weeks two years ago to run the show in their theatre.

They helped us get it up and running and for that we are so grateful.

But again, we would like to thank all the venues that have given us the space to perform the show, such as the Civic and the Draiocht in Blanchardstown.

Book tickets to Anne’s show on the Civic website HERE.