Press & Media
The Sunday Independent
Aisling Byrne talks to Sarah Caden about ROTM & inclusion in the Arts
From the Oscar-winning An Irish Goodbye to Sharon Horgan’s black comedy series Bad Sisters and the award-winning short Headspace
June 2023
Cork International Film Festival Concludes and Announces the 2022 Audience Award Winners
Film Candidate for the European Film Awards 2023
Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards 2023 (as Ireland’s representative): Head Space by Aisling Byrne
November 2022
Ray Darcy Interview - March 2022
Mark Smith & Aisling Byrne on The Ray D’Arcy Show
“Whose idea was it,” Ray D’Arcy wondered, “to make a play about you?” The you in question is actor Mark Smith and his collaborator Aisling Byrne answered Ray’s question with another question, “Who do you think?!” Mark and Aisling were in studio on Monday to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day and talk about their award-winning show, Making a Mark (all about Mark), which goes on a nationwide tour in March and April.
March 2022
Ireland AM - July 2021
Mark Smith & Aisling Byrne on Ireland AM
July 2021
Brendan O' Connor Interview - September 2020
Mark Smith & Aisling Byrne interview with Brendan O’ Connor
Mark Smith and Aisling Byrne spoke about their involvement together in theatre.
September 2020
The Journal - Culture Night 2020
Culture Night: ‘People are waking up to the ideathat diversity makes for really interesting art’
COVID-19 HAS decimated the arts but the virus has presented opportunities for often overlooked actors to diversify and try new things.
That’s according to Mark Smith, who has Down syndrome, and who was forced to cancel his show Making a Mark due to Covid-19.
But with Culture Night around the corner, Smith was able to look at other forms of artistic expression and diversify his portfolio….
September 2020
Tommy Tiernan Show Interview - Mark Smith and Aisling Byrne
Actor Mark Smith on Inclusion | The Tommy Tiernan Show | RTÉ One
“We need to have more people out there going into the acting business or people into college’ Actor Mark, joined by creative partner and friend Aishling, speaks about inclusion.
January 2020
THE IRISH TIMES
The incredible but true stories of Mark Smith
Making documentary theatre about his life has given the actor his first opportunity to tell his own story.
August 2019
RTE SIX ONE NEWS - Run of the Mill at the Abbey Theatre as part of the Abbey 5×5 initiative.
Community groups given access to Abbey to develop their own theatre piece
An initiative at the Abbey Theatre to help people with intellectual disabilities to develop a theatre piece based on their own life experiences is drawing to a close this week….
July 2019
THE JOURNAL - Singing for Survival, Draiocht Blanchardstown
Hunger Games meets X Factor: Play highlights how people who are ‘different’ are treated in a post-Trump world
The piece is devised and performed by an ensemble of actors with intellectual disabilities, reflecting satirically on the rise of right-wing authoritarianism.
December 2018
THE JOURNAL - Interview with Aisling Byrne and Mark Smith
‘People with disabilities are represented as one-dimensional, that they’re happy all the time’
A new podcast is giving people with disabilities a platform to share their stories.
April 2018
THE IRISH TIMES - Reason in Madness
Shakespeare meets George Orwell meets the Kardashians
Mark Smith is about to take his first steps on to the stage at Draíocht, Blanchardstown, where he is rehearsing Reason in Madness, a new adaptation of King Lear by Run of the Mill Theatre Company. Smith is playing the title role, “a classic”, he says with the confidence of a star; a role that great actors dream of. His last starring role was in Mamma Mia, “but this is different. It’s a lot bigger and real serious stuff.”
November 2016
Shakespeare in Ireland Review
Review: Reason in Madness, Draíocht Theatre
It has sometimes been claimed that Irish theatre can’t quite do Shakespeare or that it has an attenuated relationship to Shakespeare for a variety of reasons that are cultural, historical and ideological. The absence of Shakespeare from the Abbey’s 2017 programme is likely to reactivate such claims. And even 2015’s DruidShakespeare, which gave the lie to such arguments….
November 2016
