IN A BAD WAY: a Limerick Story, Brought Home At Last!

I first started writing IN A BAD WAY during COVID. I have to stress straight away, it is not a COVID play. COVID was more of an inspiration; I like to think that every hypochondriac can remember where they were when it was announced that the world was shutting down.

I was in drama school, writing, zooming; anxious about every new freckle on my arm, every cough that came from nowhere, every sneeze that hurt and every maskless face. I wrote a short piece about a girl whose health anxiety was comically suffocating her.

IN A BAD WAY is my first one woman show. It is a love letter to the anxious. It is a funny stream of consciousness deep dive into why the body keeps score the way it does – and would it ever just give over and cop on. It discusses loneliness, grief, and Coppers Nightclub, not in that order.

The piece was first developed in Cork, with the immeasurable support of Cork Theatre Collective’s SPACE TO THINK Bursary and SHOW: A Work In Progress Event. This led to the first full length production premiering in the inaugural Cork Fringe in May of this year. We had the privilege of performing it on the Everyman Stage. Most recently, we had a run programmed in the wonderful Dublin Fringe 2025, where we were nominated for the Bewley’s Little Gem Award and the First Fortnight Award.

Now, we are bringing IN A BAD WAY to Belltable, where I am honoured to be this year’s  Artist in Residence. It will be my first time performing my own work in my hometown, and in a theatre that means so much to me. I first performed here with Limerick Youth Theatre back in 2014, in an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat – an experience that I like to think led me back here more than a decade later.

It is also lovely to be programmed with so many wonderful creatives as part of the LASTA Festival. The Young Curators programme is a superb initiative for young people and myself and my team are very excited to be part of it this year.

I hope you enjoy IN A BAD WAY – a Limerick story brought home at last!

— Isolde Fenton

Belltable Artist in Residence 2025