This Immersive Theatre Experience Dives Into The 1926 Census
This Immersive Theatre Experience Dives Into The 1926 Census
Photos by Pato Cassinoni
History lovers, this ones for you.
ANU Productions and The National Archives of Ireland have just launched The Good Luck Club, an immersive theatre experience commissioned as part of The National Archives of Ireland’ year-long commemorative programme to celebrate the release of the 1926 Census records.
“The release of the 1926 Census is a hugely significant moment in the history of Ireland. As the first census taken after independence, it reveals for the first time how people in Ireland lived, worked and worshiped,” says the Director of The National Archives of Ireland, Orlaith McBride.
This isn’t your standard sit-down theatre experience. This production invites audiences to step inside Ireland’s past. The play will be staged at the historic National Archives of Ireland building on Bishop Street, and audience members will move through the building in small groups, exploring rarely accessed spaces and encountering a series of vividly told stories drawn from archival records about the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes.
Speaking about the location, writer and director Louise Lowe said “The building is an active custodian of Ireland’s archival history, and that awareness informs all decisions we make – from how audiences will move through the space to how the census records inform the performance.”
This is a first of its kind performance in the National Archives of Ireland building, but this kind of production is nothing new for ANU Production. They’re all about putting the audience at the very centre of every performance, and this time they are doing it literally.
Established in April 2009 by Theatre-maker Louise Lowe, designer and scenographer Owen Boss and Creative Producers Lynnette Moran and Matthew Smyth, ANU has now created over 48 seminal works, public art commissions, gallery installations and museum interpretations.
ANU’s The Good Luck Club is showing from the 27th of May 2026 to the 14th June and is currently sold out, but keep posted to see when their next production is on. A limited number of tickets may be released daily via a waitlist, which opens at noon through the event page here.
