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theatre · Thursday 10 September 2026 · See website for times 
To Hell in a Handbag: The Secret Lives of Canon Chasuble & Miss Prism
At Lime Tree Theatre · Mary Immaculate College, Courtbrack Avenue, Limerick
At Lime Tree Theatre · Mary Immaculate College, Courtbrack Avenue, Limerick
If you’ve ever sat through Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest wondering what on earth Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism were getting up to when they weren’t on stage, this is the show for you. To Hell in a Handbag: The Secret Lives of Canon Chasuble & Miss Prism is a sharp, funny, and surprisingly plotty two-hander that lifts the curtain on Wilde’s most overlooked characters. Written by Irish actor-writers Helen Norton and Jonathan White, it does for Earnest what Tom Stoppard did for Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - and it does it with considerable wit. This is theatre for anyone who loves clever comedy, Victorian manners turned inside out, and a good dose of blackmail.
The play picks up during the unseen gaps in Wilde’s original Acts II and III. While Lady Bracknell holds court and the leads squabble over cucumber sandwiches, a country rector and a governess - both models of propriety in public - are quietly up to their necks in something far less respectable. The story involves blackmail, false identity, and money, with a betrayal that lands after Wilde’s comedy has tied up its own happy ending. The tone is pure homage - warm toward Wilde, but genuinely independent. The Irish Times called it a production that “packs extraordinary amounts of plot and top-notch gags into a compact package,” while The Observer described it as “a comic gem.” It premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2016 and sold out Edinburgh Festival Fringe the following year, earning a string of revival tours since. This Lime Tree date is part of a 2026 touring run.
Lime Tree Theatre sits on the campus of Mary Immaculate College, off Dock Road on Courtbrack Avenue in Limerick city. It is a 510-seat purpose-built venue that opened in 2012 and is well signposted from the city centre. By road, Limerick is roughly 2 hours from Dublin via the M7, 1 hour 20 minutes from Cork via the N20, and under an hour from Galway via the M18. Bus Eireann and Citylink serve Limerick’s Colbert Station, which is about a 20-minute walk or short taxi ride from the theatre. Parking is available on the MIC campus and on surrounding streets.
September is one of the better months to be in the city - the tourist rush has eased and the weather is still reasonable. The medieval quarter around King John’s Castle and the Hunt Museum are within easy reach of the theatre. There is more to see in Limerick and across Co. Limerick.
Heading to Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick? Limerick has plenty more to see. Read the Limerick area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.