A LETTERKENNY playwright’s new show is set to take off and tell the darkly comic tale about her childhood dream to buy a helicopter.
An Grianan will premiere the powerful new solo show that is based on a young girl’s belief that she and her father were saving for the family chopper.
A spokesperson for An Grianan said: “It is a really exciting show. Written and performed by Letterkenny native Gráinne Curistan, it is called Saving For A Helicopter.
“It offers audiences a raw, funny, and profoundly human account of living with chronic illness.
“The show is grounded in Gráinne’s Donegal upbringing and is told with compassion, courage, and unmistakable theatrical flair.
“It widens to capture the life-altering realities of genetic illness and ultimately presents as a deeply personal and darkly funny account.
“It is tender and unflinchingly honest. The show follows Gráinne’s journey from carefree childhood into adulthood, where a hereditary kidney disease long shadowing her life finally demands centre stage.”
Through vivid storytelling, music, and sharp wit, Gráinne brings to life a memorable cast of characters, family members, doctors, nurses, and her younger self, capturing moments of absurdity, fear, humour, and resilience with striking emotional clarity.
At its heart, Saving for a Helicopter is an exploration of illness, identity, and inheritance according to critics.
It asks what we carry from those we love, what lives within our bodies, and how we continue forward when there is no escape route, only the fragile, stubborn persistence of hope.
Gráinne is an actor, writer, and singer with over 15 years’ experience writing, producing, and performing theatre nationally and internationally.
A graduate of the MPhil in Theatre & Performance at Trinity College Dublin, she was named an Axis Assemble Artist in 2023 and is the Founder and former Artistic Director of At Large Theatre Company, which operated from 2010–2020.
Her writing credits include The Meeting (Edinburgh Fringe 2016), Anecdotal Evidence (Scene + Heard 2017), and Birth Story (TCD European Research Night 2023). Recent acting credits include Animal Farm 2: The Moosical (Scene + Heard 2025), Show Jumps by One Giant Leap Presents (rehearsed reading, Scene + Heard 2025), Man of Straw (short film, 2024), Birth Story (TCD 2023), A Little Heart (Scene + Heard 2019), and Nowhere Now (Edinburgh Fringe 2017).
Saving For A Helicopter runs in An Grianan from June 25 to 27, 2026.