To Hell in a Handbag: The Secret Lives of Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism

What to Expect

“To Hell in a Handbag” takes the two most overlooked figures in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the earnest cleric Canon Chasuble and the governess Miss Prism, and asks what the pair were doing during all the scenes Wilde left them out of. The answer turns out to involve blackmail, money troubles and a good deal of scheming, running underneath the events of the original play rather than beside it. The approach is the one Tom Stoppard used on two of Hamlet’s minor courtiers in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and the comedy comes from watching two apparently respectable characters turn out to be busier and far less proper than Wilde ever let on.

It was written by the Irish actor-writers Helen Norton and Jonathan White, who also perform it, and the two of them carry the whole thing between them. The play was developed in 2016 through Show in a Bag, the Dublin Fringe Festival scheme run with Fishamble: The New Play Company and the Irish Theatre Institute, which helps actors build a new piece of their own that is compact enough to tour anywhere. That is exactly what happened: it has been running for ten years now, and the 2026 dates are billed as a 10th anniversary tour. The Irish Times review described it as packing “extraordinary amounts of plot and top-notch gags into a compact package.”

The Drogheda date opens Droichead’s Theatre Club Autumn/Winter 2026 season, which also marks its own 10th anniversary. The club has run since 2017 and pairs each production with an informal post-show discussion with the cast and creative team, so it is worth staying in your seat once the curtain comes down. The rest of the season carries work by Clare Monnelly, Deirdre Kinahan, Paula Greevy Lee, Anthony Kinahan and Elizabeth Moynihan.

Good to Know

• Thursday 24 September 2026, 8:00pm, at Droichead Arts Centre, Stockwell Street, Drogheda
• Opens the venue’s Theatre Club Autumn/Winter 2026 season, its 10th anniversary year, a run of eight plays plus a work in progress, to 19 November 2026
• A full season pass covering the whole Theatre Club season, plus a bus trip to one Abbey Theatre date, is €125, individual tickets for single shows are usually released closer to each date
• Book through droichead.com or by phone on 041 983 3946
• A comedy, suitable for a general adult audience, with a post-show discussion with the cast

Getting There

Droichead Arts Centre is on Stockwell Street in Drogheda town centre, next to the Drogheda Municipal Centre and library, a short walk from both the bus station and the town’s rail station. Drogheda sits on the M1 motorway about 50km north of Dublin, and Enterprise and commuter rail services from Dublin Connolly take roughly 45 minutes.

While You’re in Drogheda

Drogheda’s town centre has good independent pubs and places to eat within a few minutes of the arts centre, making it easy to build an evening around the show. There is more to see in Drogheda and across Co. Louth.