Arán agus Ím

Written & presented by Manchán Magan. 

Directed by Tom Creed.  Produced in association with the Abbey Theatre. 

“Shall we bake bread together and churn some butter, and talk about things that really matter?” asks Manchán Magan, the presenter of the  70-minute bilingual show, Arán & Im, which explores what makes Irish so unique and potent.

“What’s the word for the lonesomeness of a cow bereft of her calf? Or, for the sound horses make when they meet after an absence? To what extent is the language embedded in the Otherworld?” Join Manchán as he bakes bread and churns butter and reveals the link between sourdough and the transformational power of Irish.

The show is a celebration of language, land and local Irish food, with freshly-baked traditional sourdough bread for the audience to slice and spread with butter they churn themselves from Irish cream. (Knowledge of Irish is not required.)

Manchán Magan is a broadcaster, travel writer and playwright who wrote the Magan’s World column for The Irish Times for 6 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 2 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 travelling 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 novel and 5 travel books.  He lives in his oak forest in a self-made hovel in Westmeath. www.manchan.com