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theatre · Saturday 29 August 2026 · 4:00pm 
Distillation
At St. John's Theatre & Arts Centre · The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry
At St. John's Theatre & Arts Centre · The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry
Distillation is a solo performance that does not sit comfortably in any single category - part personal essay, part sensory encounter, part environmental meditation. Created and performed by Luke Casserly, it grew out of Ireland’s cessation of industrial peat harvesting and asks what it means to belong to a landscape that is being slowly reclaimed by nature. It has toured to the Abbey Theatre, the Cork Midsummer Festival, and venues in the US and Canada since its premiere at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2023, earning four-star reviews and a reputation as one of the more genuinely original Irish theatre pieces of recent years. The St. John’s show on 29 August is part of a funded 2026 Irish tour, and the 150-seat venue in Listowel is exactly the right scale for work this intimate.
Casserly developed the piece in collaboration with perfumer Joan Woods, and the result is a performance where all five senses are genuinely put to use. The Irish Times noted that audiences experience “not just sight and hearing but also touch, smell and even taste.” The bog perfume essence - created specifically for the show - is something audiences carry away with them, a scent memory tied to the Midlands landscape Casserly grew up in. The Guardian described the format as “playful, participatory,” and there is real warmth in the approach: this is not a piece that holds audiences at a distance. The themes - landscape, loss, belonging, the slow transformation of the Irish countryside - resonate well beyond the Midlands, and Kerry audiences will find plenty to connect with in a county where the relationship between people and land runs equally deep.
Listowel is about 28 km north of Tralee on the N69. From Killarney, allow roughly 50 minutes via the N22 and N69. From Limerick, it is about an hour south on the N69. Bus Eireann serves Listowel from Tralee (route 14), though services are limited on Saturdays so it is worth checking times in advance. St. John’s Theatre sits directly on The Square in the centre of town, which is easy to find. Parking is available on and around the Square, and there is a pay car park close by on Church Street.
Listowel is a town with a strong literary identity - home to the annual Writers’ Week festival and the birthplace of playwrights, novelists and poets who have shaped Irish writing. The town’s Georgian Square and the River Feale nearby make for a pleasant walk before or after the show. There is more to see in Listowel and across Co. Kerry.
Heading to St. John's Theatre & Arts Centre in Listowel? Kerry has plenty more to see. Read the Listowel area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.