About Corn Exchange

Freefall 2009. Photo by Rich Gilligan

From 1995 The Corn Exchange has been celebrated one of Irish theatre’s risk-takers, creating powerful theatrical experiences through embodied creative collaboration.

Founded by director Annie Ryan in 1995, the Corn Exchange created a multi-award-winning repertoire, including radical re-imaginings like Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar, lauded adaptations like Joyce’s Dubliners and Eimear McBride’s astonishing novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing and much loved original works created in collaboration with writer Michael West including Dublin By Lamplight, Freefall, Man of Valour and most recently The Fall of the Second Republic in co-production with the Abbey Theatre.

The work combines strong embodied ensemble practice with dynamic text and cutting-edge design and technology to create a highly imaginative, transformational theatre experience, described as ‘razor-sharp’ (Irish Times), ‘magnificent’ (Guardian), ‘tireless, passionate and exact’ (New York Times).

The Corn Exchange’s archive is housed at University of Galway.

cornexchangedublin@gmail.com

I continue to be uniquely challenged and stretched by Annie’s demand for detail and total application.

Derbhle Crotty. Actor and Ensemble Member

Photo by Rich Gilligan

Artistic Director

Annie Ryan

Originally from Chicago, Annie trained as an actor at the Piven Theatre Workshop from the age of 12, and at 18 became a member Chicago’s famous Commedia company, New Crime. The combined vocabularies of the Piven's work in Theatre Games, Improvisation and Story Theatre and the Commedia style of New Crime formed the foundation of her work with The Corn Exchange.

Over the years, the company’s practice and style has grown and morphed, greatly influenced by the wonderful invention and talent of the company’s ensemble players. Annie has directed all of the company’s productions to date, including modern classics, adaptations and original works created in collaboration with writer Michael West, of which she is most proud.
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Associate Artist

Michael West

Michael West has written many plays in collaboration with Annie Ryan and The Corn Exchange, including Dublin By Lamplight; The Seagull; the world premiere adaptation of James Joyce’s Dubliners; Man of Valour; and Freefall. Other work for The Corn Exchange includes Everyday; Foley; and an adaptation of Lolita (in a co-production with the Abbey).

He has translated or adapted many texts, among them The Marriage of Figaro for the Abbey; a version of Death and the Ploughman by the Bohemian 14^th century writer Johannes Von Saaz for Christian Schiaretti of the TNP in Lyon and produced by SITI company and directed by Anne Bogart in the USA; and work by Molière, Marivaux and Calderón. His latest translation, Forever Yours, Mary-Lou by Michel Tremblay premiered at the Theatre Royal in Bath in March 2016.

In 2014 the Abbey Theatre presented a world premiere of Conservatory. His latest play, The Chinese Room, premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the USA in 2016, directed by James Macdonald.

In 2017 he was dramaturg on Webster’s The White Devil at the Globe, and Dead Centre’s Hamnet, which played at the Schaubühne, Berlin and the Abbey in Dublin. He has written plays for children, for radio and adapted an Oscar Wilde story for the English National Ballet. He is published by Methuen.
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Testimonials

Annie Ryan is the best director I have ever worked with: the most frightening, the most creative and the most inspiring.

Dominic West. Ensemble Member, star of HBO’s The Wire
Working with Corn Exchange was crucial to my own development as both an actor and a writer.

Mark O’Halloran. Actor, Writer, Ensemble Member
Annie is the most rigorous, challenging and professional director I have worked with in this country.

Janet Moran. Actor and Ensemble Member
The Corn Exchange and Annie Ryan have been an essential part of my ongoing development as a performer and theatre-maker.

Louis Lovett. Actor, Theatre-maker, Ensemble Member