Carthaginians at An Grianán Theatre

Frank McGuinness’ Carthaginians has often been acknowledged as one of the few enduring plays to have emerged from ‘The Troubles’.

An elegy for Bloody Sunday in Derry, it is the survival of tragedy, of intense grief which becomes the unspoken subject through the personal journeys of three women and three men who camp out in a graveyard awaiting the rise of the dead.



Dido is the outsider who brings daily pram loads of supplies including a script of his own attempt at a Troubles Play, The Burning Balaclava, the comic centrepiece which is surrounded by jokes, quizzes and encounters which pass the time of waiting. Individual resurrections signal a community, like Carthage, rising from its ashes.



This production commemorates the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and, appropriately within the theme of Carthaginians celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Forum Theatre, Derry/Londonderry.



'Hauntingly coherent beauty and of sadness and of a deep defiant joy.' The Financial Times



'Brilliantly effective and affective.' The Guardian



'A completeness which engages our absolute attention.' The Independent