Extra Ordinary Women Logo Linen Hall Library Logo
search icon

Explore our Collections

close icon
Search Collections / Theatre and Performing Arts

Sole Purpose Productions

Sole Purpose Productions

In 1997 Patricia Byrne co-founded the Derry-based theatre company Sole Purpose Productions, seeking to explore human relationships, raise awareness of contemporary issues, and support social justice through theatre. To date, their plays have explored challenging topics around marginalised communities, domestic violence, addiction, gender politics, and more. Blinkered, a play about mental health and suicide, written by Patricia Byrne, was performed at ‘Origins’ the first Irish Theatre Festival in New York, 2019, where it won the Special Jury Prize. Patricia Byrne was awarded the Noel Walsh Freedom Award in 2012 and the Helen Harris Freedom Award in 2014 for her significant contributions to LGBTQ+ rights through theatre work with Sole Purpose Productions. In 2014, the Sole Purpose play Life and Love: Lesbian Style received the Eva Gore Booth Award for Best Female Performance at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, for which the playwright Hilary McCollum was also nominated for The Oscar Wilde Award for Best New Writing.


This archive contains photographs, leaflets, scripts, reports, and reviews from a variety of Sole Purpose plays, including: Snow White, the Remix; Without the Walls: A Greek tragedy about Policing; Life and Love: Lesbian Style, The Shopper and the Boy; Under the Carpet; Samara’s Shop; Blinkered; Mothers Out Front; and Don't Say a Word.

Overview of the archives within this section

View All Items

Browse Related Collections

View All Collections

Browse Related Blogs

View All Blogs
I Was There: Working-Class Women in Community Drama - ciara-mcallister-02

I Was There: Working-Class Women in Community Drama

The extraORDINARYwomen project at the Linen Hall Library has one fundamental goal: to celebrate the significance of ordinary women’s lives in Northern Ireland. As part of Ciara McAllister's PhD research, Ciara explored the Theatre and Performing Arts collections in the Linen Hall Library, looking specifically at materials relating to community arts.

read more
Anna Lo: an election journey - anna-lo-poster-1636113392

Anna Lo: an election journey

Anna Lo discusses her election journey, making change for a better future and her debut in politics. A tough campaigning journey proved to be fruitful as she made history by becoming ‘the first non-white elected politician in Northern Ireland and more astonishingly, the first China-born parliamentarian in Europe.’

read more
Charabanc: A Cultural Exchange in Russia - Picture1Charabanc-1636120033

Charabanc: A Cultural Exchange in Russia

Carol Moore, a co-founder of Charabanc Theatre Company, talks about the exciting first years of the company, and what she describes as ‘a journey of female empowerment’.

read more