Saturday, March 22nd
7:30pm
Doors open at 7pm
Bumbled is a one-person, bee-twerking, Irish slow-dancing, sex-dodging, odyssey – where ‘too late’ often comes sooner than you think
Life is short, especially if you’re a bee. Not long to make honey, prop up the human food chain, and fall in love. Bumbled follows Pascal, an Irish honeybee, as he embarks on a hilarious and poignant journey to tell the world about the importance of bees, save the planet, and find true happiness with his French girlfriend, the epic Marion. All the while trying to avoid his balls exploding, his manhood falling off and certain death.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Quite often the worst of ideas are conceived over a glass of wine. But now and again, if the Spanish sun lingers long enough, “you might just have something there”.
Perched on a balcony, overlooking a gloriously aging Galician village, a beekeeping Corkman regaled us with yarns of his little ‘doozer’ friends.
“They’re a lot like us, you know.” “They keep the world turning, so they do.” “Bet you don’t know that they……” We listened, wide-eyed, like kids at story time, and as the anecdotes continued, our passing interest became fascination… and intrigue… and laughter.
And so, in association with a few bottles of 1906, and Fernando’s finest Treixadura, ‘Bumbled’ was born. Sometimes when you find yourself sitting amid nature and learning how it really works, it dawns on you that you have a definite responsibility to at least try to help preserve it. And as Irishmen, you also have an obligation to take the piss out of it. Because that’s just what we do.
We hope you enjoy Bumbled.
And if you have balls, we hope that they never explode.
Not tonight, anyway
The Team:
Performed by Colin Hamell
Written by Bernard McMullan
Directed by Carmel O’Reilly
Sound design by Stephen Russell
Produced by TírNa Theatre and The Here Comes Everybody Players
CARMEL O’REILLY is a director and actor living in Cambridge, MA. Originally from Fermanagh in N. Ireland, she founded the Súgán Theatre, a company devoted to contemporary Irish plays. Besides the Súgán, she has directed for many theatre companies in the Boston-area including the American Repertory Theatre. She is a two-time winner of the Norton Award for Outstanding Director. (The Nortons are Boston’s premier theatre awards.) For Tír Na, she also directed Trad, Jimmy Titanic and Return of the Winemaker.
Writer BERNARD MCMULLAN – A native of Belfast, Bernard now lives in Connecticut and is the author of screenplays – The Hidden Wake, The Chicken House and Soon. Bernard also wrote the award-winning Jimmy Titanic for Tir Na Theatre which played Off Broadway and has toured extensively in the US and Ireland. Most recently he penned the hit show ‘Return of the Winemaker’ which the Boston Globe described as “Theatrical gold.”
COLIN HAMELL, Producing/Artistic Director of Tir Na Theatre in Boston, has performed extensively in the US and Europe. Favorite shows include Trad, by Mark Doherty (Sugan and Tir Na Theatre), The Beauty Queen of Leenane starring Julie Harris, by Martin McDonagh (W.H.A.T), Return of the Winemaker, by Bernard McMullan (Tir Na), and The Weir, by Conor McPherson (New Rep). He toured his one-man show Jimmy Titanic, by Bernard McMullan, throughout the US, including an Off Broadway run at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City and multiple locations in Ireland and New Zealand. Jimmy Titanic had its World premiere at Origin’s First Irish in 2013. He is currently touring his new one-man show, Bumbled, premiered at the Foundry in Cambridge MA, and has played in New York City as part of the Origin First Irish Theatre Festival and in the Cork Fit Up Festival, Ireland.
Critics are raving:
“Incredibly funny – audiences were roaring throughout” – ARTS INTERNATIONAL
“Bumbled is creating a huge buzz” – IRISH ECHO
“an ingenious conceit… Hamell is an Actor to watch” – SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
Bumbled first premiered at The Foundry Theatre in Cambridge MA and then in NYC as part of Origin
Theatre’s 1st Irish Theatre Festival NYC 2024. It is produced by TírNa Theatre and The Here Comes
Everybody Players.