The Last Céilí is a new 90 minute céilíplay for three women, led by internationally acclaimed Irish performer Lisa Lambe.

The work is not principally about famine. It is about how culture survives.

Part céilí and part play, it draws on historical accounts, archive voices, traditional songs and tunes.

It is a distinct new work growing from Lisa’s NightVisiting research and performance practice, first commissioned by Ireland’s National Famine Museum in 2022.

Set in rural Ireland during Black ’47, the work asks not only what famine took from Ireland, but what the people who left carried with them: songs, stories, tunes, language, humour, faith, memory and ways of gathering. These traditions took root abroad and continued to shape Ireland in return.