PURPLE HARE THEATRE COMPANY

Au Lapin Agile

Purple Hare Theatre Company was founded in early 2016 by Nathalie Clement and Stella Godmet. We are committed to ensuring the visibility of women’s endeavour in the field of performance, be it on the stage or behind the scenes.

Our company aims to bring new and thought-provoking work on to the stage. We are passionate about engaging and creating a genuine connection with our audience, and favour a naturalistic performance style and minimalistic sets to do so, with the support of specific lighting design and precise use of embodied movement.

Since our creation, we have produced four new Irish plays: The Sadness of The Little Sparrow (2016) by Jim Yates, -Anonymous (2017 & 2018) by Mark Richardson, Have You Seen This Girl? (2019) by Cliodhna McAllister, and Nun On The Run! (2019) by Conor Duffy.

In 2019, Purple Hare received an Arts Grant from the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to present Nun On The Run! in the dlr Lexicon. In 2021, we were granted a development award by the Arts Council of Ireland to research a new piece, Paper Irish, investigating the formation of Irish identity.

Why Purple Hare?

The Hare

There is a well-known Parisian Cabaret, Au Lapin Agile, dating back from the late 17th century and located at the heart of the artists' quarter, Montmartre. Au Lapin Agile’s name comes from the cartoonist André Gill who represented the attempted escape of a hare from a pot. Over the years, it became an artists' hub, welcoming renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec, Auguste Renoir, Paul Verlaine and many others. It is at Au Lapin Agile that singer Edith Piaf was discovered.

In Celtic mythology and folklore, the hare has links to the mysterious Otherworld of the supernatural. In Irish folklore, the hare is also often associated with the Otherworld (Aos Si) community whose world was reached through mists, hills, lakes, ponds, wetland areas, caves, ancient burial sites, cairns and mounds. Shapeshifters were often said to take the form of the hare.

The Colour Purple
Purple’s rarity in nature and the expense of creating the colour has given purple a supernatural aura for centuries. Purple is also the most powerful wavelength of the rainbow – and it’s a colour with a powerful history that has evolved over time. In fact, the origins of the symbolism of purple are more significant and interesting than those of any other colour. It is associated with creativity, magic and unity.

We believe in taking our audience into an imaginary world, and aspire to let creativity and magic take over. Inspired by artists’ hub Le Lapin Agile in Paris and by the mythology of the Celtic hare, we chose to become Purple Hare Theatre Company. Our name translates our vision for the company while reflecting our Franco-Irish cultural heritage.