Award-winning Irish theatre collective MALAPROP return with a touring show of their hit stage exploration of climate breakdown, with music by Anna Clock on this cruise ship cabaret and the legacies of bad parenting, following their U.S. debut:

TOURS: Dublin / Kerry / Cork / Galway / Tipperary / Roscommon / Donegal / Sligo / Wicklow / Limerick :: 5 April - 5 June

“deadly serious and wild fun… Malaprop pulls it off with skill, style and substance.”
– The Irish Times ★★★★★
“a lament for the present and an elegy for the past that keeps alight a flame of hope for the future” - The New York Times

Malaprop Theatre presents an Irish Tour of their award-winning production, HOTHOUSE. This fast-paced, poignant story of love, loss, and legacy set on an Arctic cruise ship, takes you—the passenger—on a journey to bid farewell to the ice caps. Following their Off-Broadway debut (2024) where HOTHOUSE was selected as a New York Times Critic’s Pick, the show tours to 10 venues nationwide from April – June, 2025.

HOTHOUSE brings us on an odyssey that sails through an intergenerational tale complete with horny songbirds, a mad captain, and wanting to change, but not knowing how. Set on a cruise liner in the Arctic, where the ship's captain is pulling the strings, the play is performed by a cast of five. HOTHOUSE with its clever score, looks at the last hundred years in Ireland, and ahead to the next hundred.

Tackling climate breakdown with big ideas, a lot of laughs, and some truly grotesque cabaret musical numbers. The play sees Ruth (in 1969) who refuses to eat sandwiches with lettuce in them. Ali in the present day goes on a cruise to say goodbye to the ice. A parent 100 years in the future tells their child it gets better, even though we're pretty sure they're lying.
HOTHOUSE is directed by Claire O’Reilly (Emma, The Abbey Theatre) and written by Carys D. Coburn (Absent the Wrong, Verity Bargate Award Winner, Irish Times Theatre Award nominee for Citysong) with MALAPROP. Cast includes Bláithín MacGabhann (Dancing at Lughnasa at National Theatre London, Maeve O’Mahony (Abbey Theatre, Collapsing Horse, Sugarglass Theatre, MALAPROP’s LOVE+, JERICHO, Everything Not Saved, Before You Say Anything), Thommas Kane Byrne (Darklands, Kin, Derry Girls, Deadly Cuts) and Peter Corboy (Fair City, Rough Magic, Sugarglass Theatre). Set and costume design are by Molly O’Cathain (Gaiety Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Peacock Theatre), lighting design is by John Gunning and Composition, Musical Direction and Sound Design are by Anna Clock.

*This touring production will have 4 ISL interpreted performances; in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway, lead by deaf artist Lianne Quigley and a team of ISL interpreters.

“A company of real ambition. One which is using theatrical form to grapple with the complexities of a world where the ground is constantly shifting beneath our feet” - Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor

CAST: Peter Corboy, Thommas Kane Byrne, Bláithín Mac Gabhann, Maeve O'Mahony

CREATIVE TEAM:
Written by Carys D. Coburn with MALAPROP
Directed by Claire O’Reilly
Set & Costume Design by Molly O'Cathain
Composition, Musical Direction and Sound by Anna Clock
Lighting Design by John Gunning
Assistant Director Ellen Buckley
Produced by Caoimhe Whelan & Heather O’Sullivan