OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  Frances Kay 

• Author Notes

  Based on the fourteenth-century account of a pilgrimage from Ireland to Jerusalem written by the Clonmel friar Simon FitzSimon (Symon Simeonis).

• Setting

  14th century Europe

• Notes

  With my Bare Hands was staged as part of the collaborative project ‘Bringing History to the People’ initiated between the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute, University College Dublin, School of History, University College Cork and the Irish Franciscans. It was funded by the Heritage Council and the Arts Council.

• Synopsis

  With my Bare Hands tells the true and tragic story of two fourteenth-century Irish Franciscan friars, Simon Simeonis and Hugo the Illuminator, on a journey from Clonmel to Jerusalem through turbulent lands in Europe and the Middle East. Their pilgrimage is intended to emulate the example of the unconventional and charismatic St. Francis, but they cannot know what lies in wait for them. Shackled with their human fallibilities, they struggle to integrate what they experience in England, France Greece and Egypt with their contemporary values and sense of self, deeply coloured by the cultural and religious baggage they bring with them from fourteenth-century Ireland.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  Full-Length

Cast size

• Male

  1

• Total

  1

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  27 August 2010

• Production Notes

  Produced by The Bare Hands Project as part of Heritage Week 2010

• Original Venue

  Granary Theatre
  

Source Of Information