SkelpieLimmer is a female led company made up of Seón Simpson and Gina Donnelly. They thrive on the idea of theatre as a collaborative art and those who work in it as Theatre Makers who continually evolve their practice in response to what the project needs from them.
Seón Simpson
Seón Simpson is an award winning writer and director for theatre and one half of creative partnership SkelpieLimmer.
Seón has worked in assisting roles on projects such as David Ireland’s Sadie (Lyric theatre/ BBC arts) and SPUD! (Lyric Theatre) Dir. Conleth Hill, Removed (Brian Friel Theatre) Dir. Emma Jordan, and Ubu The King (The MAC) Dir. Patrick J O’Reilly.
Her Directing Credits include: The Dumb Waiter (Lyric Theatre), Now For the North (Lyric Theatre), Crave (Brian Friel Theatre), Let us go then, you and I (Accidental Theatre/ Brian Friel Theatre), Two Fingers Up (The New Theatre: The Dublin Fringe Festival/ The MAC/ Brian Friel Theatre), and Operation Ottolenghi/ Melons For Two (Accidental Theatre: No Touching Theatre Festival), Scaredy Fat (Lyric Theatre/Pleasance Dome), Algorithm (In development) and Diona Doherty’s Hen Do (GBL).
She was the recipient of the Brian Friel Medal (2017) and the James Ellis Bursary for Directing (2018), and was a MAC Hatch artist (2020) within creative partnership SkelpieLimmer. She was selected as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, Irish Theatre Institute and Fishamble Duets programme (2021) under which she Co-wrote and directed Heave, a theatre/film hybrid. Two Fingers Up, won the Lustrum award (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022), the Abbey Theatre and Dublin Fringe Festival’s Creative Thinking Award (2019), and was shortlisted for Fishamble New Writing Award (2019). She was selected for the MAKE residency (2022) and is currently an artist being developed under the INVEST programme.
GINA DONNELLY
Gina Donnelly is an award winning playwright and producer. She works across multiple roles in theatre. She is one half of the theatre making partnership SkelpieLimmer.
In her work as SkelpieLimmer she has achieved massive success with ‘Two Fingers Up’ (co writer, co producer, co director) and ‘Scaredy Fat’ by Colm McCready (Producer).
Her writing credits include ‘Tea’; a piece about post traumatic stress as a result of abortion restriction in Northern Ireland, ‘Ice Cream’, a piece about hidden homelessness and domestic violence, ‘What If We’d Stayed Angry’; a special commission for New York Origins First Irish Festival imagining Northern Ireland in 2050, for which she focused on the absence of proper government in Northern Ireland.
She is currently working in her first TV Commission with Seón Simpson and her newest piece of writing ‘Love Is Mortifying’; a fairytale for the Tinder generation can be heard later this year on BBC Radio 4 and Sounds as part of BBC Shortworks.
Her work with SkelpieLimmer has earned her multiple awards including Abbey Theatre and Dublin Fringe Creative Thinking Award 2019, Lustrum Award Edinburgh 2019, both for ‘Two Fingers Up’, and Edinburgh National Partnerships Pleasance Award 2023 for ‘Scaredy Fat’. SkelpieLimmer are currently developing a factual entertainment podcast inspired by ‘Two Fingers Up’.
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FEATURING SKELPIELIMMER
Women TheatreMakers Podcast- Dr Shonagh Hill interviews Gina & Seón
Local Artists Podcast - Interview With Francis Mezza.
The Theatre Bar Podcast - Seón Interviews Gina during lockdown.
Trinity's University Times - Susie Crawford Interviews Gina about Two Fingers Up