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theatre · Saturday 12 September 2026 · 8:00pm 
To Hell in a Handbag: The Secret Lives of Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism
At Solstice Arts Centre · Railway Street, Navan, Co. Meath
At Solstice Arts Centre · Railway Street, Navan, Co. Meath
To Hell in a Handbag takes two of the most overlooked characters from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism, and builds an entire comic show around what might really have been going on between them. Written and performed by Helen Norton and Jonathan White, it plays Solstice Arts Centre for one night on Saturday 12 September, and it has become one of the most widely toured Irish two-handers of recent years.
The premise leans into the gaps Wilde left in his own play: Chasuble and Miss Prism are minor, slightly absurd figures in Earnest, prim on the surface, and Solstice bills this as “a subversively funny take” on the secret history of the pair. It sits in the same spoken-word and character-comedy territory as literary parody shows generally do, playing off audience familiarity with the source material without requiring anyone to have read it recently. Norton and White carry the whole evening between them, switching between the two characters and the wider Wilde world around them, so it rewards an audience happy to follow fast dialogue rather than spectacle. One-night bookings like this one tend to move well at Solstice, so booking ahead is sensible rather than relying on the door.
Solstice Arts Centre on Railway Street is Meath’s main publicly funded arts venue, and slots like this one sit alongside its wider theatre, comedy and spoken-word programme through September.
Navan is about an hour from Dublin via the N3, served by regular Bus Éireann and Dublin Coach routes into Navan Bus Station on Railway Street, right by the arts centre. Town-centre parking is a short walk away for drivers.
Navan has a good spread of cafés and restaurants around Trimgate Street for a meal before or after the show. There is more to see in Navan and across Co. Meath.
Heading to Solstice Arts Centre in Navan? Meath has plenty more to see. Read the Navan area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.
In town for Solstice Arts Centre? These Meath tours book out in summer.