M E N U   Home What is O'Casey's? What's On? This Month's Author Our Readers Photo Gallery Recordings Archives Get Involved!    M A Y   2 0 0 9   A month dedicated to history, secret passions and the works of Umberto Eco. How does one follow on from a month where we talked about the end of the world? Well, by looking at the past and past times is how... May saw the opening of the upper level of O'Casey's - this month, the theatre (or 'zen room' as Danton likes to call it) saw a whole new host of events. From lectures about pirates and the dark ages to DJs revealing just how deep their musical obsessions go. The awesome books of Umberto Eco. May was a month to discover new things - and find the past is a rich place indeed.    T H E   M O N T H   T H A T   W A S . . .   Date Time Event Friday 1st 3pm The End of the World Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale Just how bad can it get? Presenting a live reading of the disturbing The Handmaid's Tale - what would happen if the far right Christian sects did take over America? Not for the faint at heart. Tuesday 5th 1pm Beautiful Stories for Evil Children Ursula Wills-Jones's The Wicker Husband Betty Bard MacDonald's The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury An event given over to the fine art of storytelling - be it a gripping yarn, a chilling horror story or cracking flummery; folklore or a short story - we gather around the bar, grab ourselves a nice drink and enjoy the tale... this evening the brilliant Elwe Eldrich presents another series of excellent short stories. Thursday 7th 3pm A Moment in Time Just how dark WERE the Dark Ages? *** POSTPONED *** Friday 8th 3pm My Favourite Author, My Favourite Chapter Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose *** POSTPONED *** Tuesday 12th 1pm Beautiful Stories for Evil Children Brian Aldiss's Super-Toys Last All Summer Long Brian Aldiss's Super-Toys When Winter Comes An event given over to the fine art of storytelling - be it a gripping yarn, a chilling horror story or cracking flummery; folklore or short story - we gather around the bar, grab ourselves a nice drink and enjoy the tale... this evening we present another series of excellent short stories. Thursday 14th 12pm A Moment in Time... Just how dark WERE the Dark Ages? The first of our irregular lectures about history and tying into our Umberto Eco month. O'Casey's presents its own, irrelevant but factual view on the supposed 'Dark Ages'- did they actually happen? Was everyone actually barbaric? And why are there so many links between events in 1000 AD and 2000 AD? The dirty secrets of the Vikings and the Huns... the Normans... the Russians... Bulgarians... Germans... French... you name it, it gets exposed... Friday 15th 11am My Secret Passion The music of Sting by Kennef Riggles My Secret Passion is where we ask DJs to reveal their secret passion and indulge it! Each DJ is given two hours to play exclusive one type of music or one artist - something or someone not always expected. Tonight, the awesome Kennef Riggles brings us his great passion... the music of Sting! 3pm My Favourite Writer, My Favourite Chapter Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose Two monks investigate a series of grisly murders in a remote monastery at the height of the Dark Ages... welcome to the terrifying world of Umberto Eco's brilliant The Name of the Rose. Is this the work of a serial killer... or the anti-Christ? Saturday 16th 12pm A Moment in Time Pirates! What were the dirty secrets of the pirates? We ALL know about pirates... the traditional image of Long John Silver and Blackbeard... the plunderers of the Caribbean... Surely there can be no secrets there right? So wrong! An informal but factual guide to the world of the pirates. Tuesday 19th 1pm Beautiful Stories for Evil Children David Shannon's A Bad Case of Stripes An event given over to the fine art of storytelling- be it a gripping yarn, a chilling horror story or cracking flummery; folklore or short story - we gather around the bar, grab ourselves a nice drink and enjoy the tale... this evening the brilliant Elwe Eldrich presents another series of excellent short stories. 2pm My Secret Passion The music of Prince by Danton Thirroul My Secret Passion is where we ask DJs to reveal their secret passion and indulge it! Each DJ is given two hours to play exclusive one type of music or one artist - something or someone not always expected. Tonight, Danton Thirroul brings us his great passion... the music of Prince! Friday 22nd 3pm My Favourite Writer, My Favourite Chapter Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum Long before Dan Brown came up with his little novel, Eco brought us the hulking majestic esoteric and brilliantly funny Foucault's Pendulum - a dry look at the world of Biblical conspiracy theories, desperate authors on the make, secret societies and the greatest secret the world has ever seen. Tuesday 26th 1pm Beautiful Stories For Evil Children An event given over to the fine art of storytelling - be it a gripping yarn, a chilling horror story or cracking flummery; folklore or short story - we gather around the bar, grab ourselves a nice drink and enjoy the tale... this evening we present another series of excellent short stories. 2pm My Secret Passion The music of Duke Robillard by Isobela Capalini My Secret Passion is where we ask DJs to reveal their secret passion and indulge it! Each DJ is given two hours to play exclusive one type of music or one artist - something or someone not always expected. Tonight, Isobela Capalini brings us her great passion... the music of Duke Robillard! Friday 29th 3pm My Favourite Writer, My Favourite Chapter Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana A life lived out with books! Presenting another extract from the brilliant writing of Umberto Eco. This week, an extract from his evocative and witty, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. A live reading at O'Casey's!