Welcome to the website of Declan Gorman Arts & Events!
I am a playwright, director, performer, producer and public artist with a practice that has covered many aspects of the arts. At the core is an unswerving belief in the power of live performance – the working towards it and the sharing of it – to change, entertain, question, and somehow to make the world around us a better and more exciting place.
This website contains information about current projects; selected archive materials; resources and a “News & Views” section which combines news with occasional reflections and personal essays, mainly but not exclusively about the arts.
The artist is grateful to the Arts Council, Bealtaine Festival, Creative Ireland, Fingal County Council and Monaghan County Council for certain short term grants, prizes and supports over the past decade, which are listed against the relevant projects on these pages.
RECENT NEWS
NINETEEN EIGHTY SOMETHING : WORLD PREMIERE & REGIONAL TOUR : APRIL -MAY 2026
In April 2026, I was pleased to premiere my new solo show “Nineteen Eighty Something” at Garage Theatre Monaghan, and to proceed on a short regional tour to Trim, Virginia, Newbridge, Galway and Dundalk
ABOUT THE SHOW: Nineteen Eighty Something begins dramatically with a young Irish emigrant wakened from sleep in a German subway by an unknown woman and told to run! From this it hurtles non-stop through the squats and factories of Bavaria, journeys to North Africa and back home to a new life in the independent (fringe) theatre and street protest in Ireland. There is heartbreak, absurd escapades, side-splitting laughter, memorable characters and self-discovery. Whether you lived through the eighties or simply wondered what it was like to be alive and young at that time, this show will take you there on a wild ride: a story so true you couldn’t make it up!
OTHER NEWS: Since concluding the tour, I have been in negotiation with various venues with a view to a Dublin run in 2027. Meantime, it’s been fairly non-stop, working as Dramaturg (narrative adviser) on the spectacular Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland) Irish & Contemporary Dance show at the Ambassador Theatre, Dublin (October 26); preparing to take up a new short-term teaching role on the Dubin City University Age Friendly University programme (Nov – Feb) and waiting, more like an anxious grandparent than parent, for a much-anticipated revival of my first ever play ‘Hades’ (1998) which will be presented in Nov 26 by final year students at Dundalk Institute of Technology (now Dundalk University College – aligned with Queen’s University Belfast).
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