Galway composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Mullarkey has teamed up with playwright Enda Walsh for a new work that forms part of the Abbey Theatre’s offering for this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival.

Safe House will receive its world premiere at the Abbey’s Peacock stage in October, running from Thursday, October 3 to Saturday, November 9.

Billed as “a song cycle, a gig and a smashed-up memory play”, it will star Dublin actress Kate Gilmore as Grace, a young woman living alone in an outdoor handball alley in the Irish countryside, surrounded by rubbish and debris.

Through song, music, recorded voice and film, the audience will meet Grace before being taken inside her fractured thoughts, her past and present, to try and make sense of it all.

Directed by Enda Walsh, Safe House is being presented alongside Lady Gregory’s 1912 drama, Grania, which will be on the main Abbey stage.

“These two productions are very consciously paired to create space for our audiences to reflect on our past and those who had to flee our shores, for a myriad of reasons; and on our present and those we’re asked to shelter, also for a myriad of reasons,” according to the Abbey Theatre’s Artistic Director, Caitríona McLaughlin, who directs Grania.

“At the same time, they are simply two brilliant, intriguing, entertaining and very different plays and can be engaged with purely for pleasure and for a great story,” she adds.

Anna Mullarkey, whose own musical style involves weaving electronics with piano and voice, has been a key member of the Galway music scene for many years.

A founding member of the group My Fellow Sponges, she has also composed scores for short films and documentaries – sometimes in collaboration with her director sister Mia.

She has released four singles under the Strange Brew label, while her debut solo album, Falling, was released in 2022.

Go to abbeytheatre.ie for more information on Safe House.

Pictured: Composer Anna Mullarkey.