THE COMEDY PHENOMENON OF IRELAND & ENGLAND IS FINALLY COMING TO NORTH AMERICA!

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The Show

Brendan O'Carroll created Mrs. Agnes Brown - a Dublin mother of six whose hobbies include drinking, tea, bingo and meddling - for an afternoon Irish radio show in 1990.

Originally scheduled to run daily for only two weeks, Mrs. Brown's Boys ran for three years. Prisoners in the Dublin jail asked to be locked up early so they could hear the afternoon show!

The radio series was adapted first into novels – The Mammy, The Chisslers, The Granny and The Young Wan, all of which became bestsellers and are now available in 23 countries and in 11 languages. Then came a movie adaptation of the first book, The Mammy, titled Agnes Browne (the "e" was added to differentiate it from the Judy Dench movie Mrs. Brown), written by O'Carroll and directed by and starring Angelica Huston.

The material was then adapted for a series of stage plays, this time starring O'Carroll himself as the indomitable Agnes. The plays have toured Ireland dozens of times and made the voyage across the Irish Sea to conquer England, as well. The five plays in the series have enjoyed combined sales of more than £25 million at the U.K. box office.

Now, BBC1 TV has commissioned a comedy series of the Mrs. Brown stories. The initial episode will be broadcast in December, 2010, with the rest of the series to follow in the new year.

O'Carroll says that Mrs. Brown "just lights up" his life, as she has for millions throughout Ireland, the U.K, and soon in Canada too.

In December, 2009, Brendan O'Carroll posted a video with clips from various Mrs. Brown stage shows on YouTube. Within days, hundreds of thousands had viewed the video. Now, more than two million have caught Mrs. Brown on YouTube, making her a viral phenomenon and prompting the British media to label her "the Susan Boyle of Comedy."

When O'Carroll researched the geography of the YouTube hits he discovered that a large percentage came from Canada. In no doubt that the right city for his North American debut would be Toronto, he contacted Mirvish Productions.

Explains David Mirvish: "Brendan contacted us and we began to talk about bringing his show to Toronto. Interestingly, the YouTube video had already reached many members of my staff. There is no doubt that Mrs. Brown has touched a nerve, and we are delighted to welcome her and her brood here to enrich our summer."

Adds O'Carroll: "It would be easy to think that this was just a business arrangement, but Mrs. Brown knows how attractive she is to Mr. Mirvish… and is sure he knows that Viagra pills are manufactured in Ireland.

"Seriously though, the Irish connection with Canada has historically been very strong. My personal connection is my sister Fiona, who emigrated here when she was just 16. Fiona is retired now and living in Buckhorn, Ontario. She's my favourite sister, and that's not easy: I had so many to choose from, coming as we did from a family of 11 children.

"I first set foot in Toronto in 1972 as a plucky 16-year-old. It was December; my denims froze, the hair up my nose froze and my scrotum resembled a very small walnut! I loved it then, and again in '74, and in '80 and in '82, and in '96, and I still love it. To now bring some Irish laughter to one of my favourite cities in the world, well, it's a dream come true for me!"

This latest tale is part five of the Mrs. Brown "trilogy"('though it doesn't matter in which order they are seen; the number refers to the order in which they were created and nothing more). How Now Mrs. Brown Cow! has a traditional working-class Dublin family in the run-up to Christmas. It's an exciting time for Agnes Brown as she is looking forward to the return from the 'Missions' of her youngest son, Trevor, for a Christmas visit. So, for the first time in years she will have all her children and grand-children under the same roof.

But don't let this "Waltons" style story line fool you. First, Trevor is NOT coming home, but none of her other children has the courage to tell her. Also, Mrs. Brown is expecting to be cast in the local Nativity play as the Virgin Mary; her son Rory is having relationship problems with his partner, Dino Doyle; Cathy, her only daughter, is still "manless"; and there is a close encounter with a stun-gun! ALL this and so much more in this laughter-packed, not-for-the-easily-offended family romp!

Roles and Actors


Agnes Brown

Brendan O'Carroll

Cathy Brown

Jennifer Gibney

Grandad Brown

Dermot O'Neill

Dermot Brown

Paddy Houlihan

Rory Brown

Rory Cowan

Mark Brown

Pat Shields

Winnie

Eilish O'Carroll

Buster Brady

Danny O'Carroll

Maria Brown

Fiona O'Carroll

Betty Brown

Amanda Woods

Dino Doyle

Gary Hollywood

Production Team


Production Administrator

Fiona Gibney

IT/Merchandise Consultant

Conor Gibney

Producer/Technical Supervisor

Martin Delany

Tour Management and Marketing

Rory Cowan

Wrtier/Director

Brendan O'Carroll

Co-Director

Jennifer Gibney

Stage Manager

Marian O'Sullivan

Sound and Light

Gareth Woods

Mrs Agnes Brown was born on December 6, 1940, and Christened Agnes Loretta Reddin, She was born, reared and starved in an area of Dublin's inner city known as "The Jarro". When she was just 18 (and pregnant) she married "Redser" Brown in St. Jarleths Church, the very church from which the area got its name. Seven children later, when the eldest was just 13, Redser passed away. When Agnes was asked if he went quickly, she replied, "About 50 miles an hour" (Redser was hit by a car).

Agnes' life, like my own, is not a single long tale, but is made up of many episodes. These episodes have been documented in many ways over the years, beginning on radio in 1990. This was thanks to Irish radio presenter Gareth O'Callaghan, who in a moment of obvious madness commissioned Brendan O'Carroll, a struggling communist artist at that time, to write her stories. They were broadcast for 5 minutes each day for two weeks. But she would not go away. The series ran for three years with over 500 episodes.

Following the success of the series, Mr. O'Carroll, who now denounced communism from his Mercedes Benz, decided to capture the whole life story of this indomitable widow and her children in a series of books, which were translated into many languages and became best-sellers in the U.S.A, China, Japan, Poland, Mexico, Bosnia, Slovakia, Italy, France, the U.K. and of course Ireland.

The sales worldwide piqued the interest of Hollywood and there soon followed a movie, starring and directed by Angelica Huston, titled simply Agnes Browne. It remains a Christmas favourite on television channels around the world.

Eight Mrs. Brown DVDs followed, but there was still something missing. Some other way to cash in… to, eh, bring this woman's inspirational story to the masses. Theatre! Of course! Thus began the "trilogy" of Mrs. Brown plays, of which tonight's is the fifth. The other four being The Last Wedding, Mourning Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Brown Rides Again and For the Love of Mrs. Brown (which, following the phenomenal success of a small 8 minute clip on YouTube, answered the demand that the full, live show be brought to DVD).

There is no agenda here tonight within the words of the characters, their situations, nor their idiosyncrasies. Oh, sure there is a warmth about Agnes, and an underlying optimism in all she strives to do. But that is not the point of it. The point is this: we have all reached the 21st century and it is a much different one to the one we left. What used to be fun - like a few drinks, or a cigarette and a chat - have now become either socially unacceptable or, indeed, illegal. Some of those we elected to hunt out the corrupt are now themselves suspected of corruption. The banks we trusted to mind our money have lost the trust of the people. You cannot board an aeroplane with a nail clippers nor a bottle of breast milk for your baby. The world goes to war against a country that doesn't have Weapons of Mass Destruction, and yet invests money and ignores civil rights abuses in countries that do have them. Depressed yet?

Now more than ever, don't you think that sometimes it would be nice to go somewhere and sit in the dark and just LAUGH? Well you just have. And that's the deal. You pay your money and we'll make you laugh.

I am tremendously proud that I am the writer and creator of all of the above-mentioned scripts, books, film, DVDs and plays. For this I thank my own mother, Maureen O'Carroll, who made me believe I could do anything, and not to be afraid; my children Fiona, Danny and Eric for their unwavering love and support and talent; my son-in-law Martin and my daughter-in-law Amanda - God sent them along to complete our family; my four grandsons, Jamie O'Carroll, Felix Brendan Delany, Eli Delany and Blake O'Carroll. who have set my life ablaze with hope for the future; and finally, my wife, Jennifer O'Carroll, who has taken up the torch of inspiration it would seem from my mother's hand. I love you. Folks we are here for a good time not a long time!

Brendan O'Carroll
Dublin, 2010

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Performance Schedule



244 Victoria Street, Toronto

NOW ON STAGE UNTIL SEPT 4 ONLY!

Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri 8PM / Sat 2PM & 8PM

 

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WARNING: STRONG AND HILARIOUS LANGUAGE FROM THE START

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