OFFICIAL OPENING - CHRISTIAN O'REILLY (Writer/Co-Producer)
 

Christian is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter based in Galway.
Christian’s plays include IT JUST CAME OUT (Druid Debut Series, 2001); THE GOOD
FATHER (Druid - Galway Arts Festival 2002; national tour 2003; joint winner of the 2002 Stewart Parker Trust New Playwright Bursary); IS THIS ABOUT SEX? (Rough Magic – 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival; 50 th Dublin Theatre Festival; winner of Best Theatre Script at the 2008 Irish Writers’ Guild Awards); HERE WE ARE AGAIN STILL
(Decadent/Galway City Council – 2009 Nun’s Island; Bealtaine Festival and national tour in 2011); SANCTUARY (Blue Teapot – 2012 Galway Theatre Festival; 2013 Galway Arts Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival); CHAPATTI (Northlight/Galway International Arts Festival, 2014; nominated for a Jeff Award in the category of Best New Work at the 2014 Jeff Awards, which celebrate excellence in Chicago theatre); and NO MAGIC PILL, which he also co-produced (Black Box and Civic Theatre for Dublin Theatre Festival, 2022).
 

A graduate of the 2011 BBC Writers’ Academy, his screen credits include episodes of
DOCTORS, CASUALTY, HOLBY CITY (all BBC One), ON HOME GROUND (RTE),
DECEPTION (TV3) and RED ROCK (TV3); three short films (THE KISS OF LIFE, THE
BIRTHDAY and THE RING); and INSIDE I’M DANCING, a feature film based on his
original story. INSIDE I’M DANCING won the Audience Award for Best Film at the
Edinburgh Film Festival (2004) and two Irish Film and Television Awards - Best Script
(2004) and Best Irish Film (2005). It was released in the United States as RORY O’SHEA
WAS HERE.

Christian’s screen adaptation of his play SANCTUARY received its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 2016, winning the award for Best First Irish Feature. Its
ensemble cast of intellectually disabled actors from Blue Teapot Theatre Company was
awarded the Michael Dwyer Discovery Award by the Dublin Critics Circle at the 2017
Dublin Audi International Film Festival.

Christian is currently in his second year as playwright-in-residence at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, a role he also held during 2011 and 2012.He is really looking forward to opening the 2023 All Ireland Confined Finals in Glenamaddy. A town which has history of drama for over one hundred years.