ABOUT US

Gift Horse Theatre is an environmentally conscious theatre company that makes playful, provocative work.

Gift Horse was founded in 2018 by Signe Lury, Elishka Lane, Doris de Vries, Mae Leahy, and Ciara Berkeley.

The core team of the company is formed of Signe Lury, Doris de Vries, Elishka Lane, and Sinéad Gallagher. Our associate artists are Mae Leahy, Ciara Berkeley, Jilly McGrath, Cian Malin, Daniel Montague O’Brien, and Anika Kidd.

We prioritise sustainability and are always looking for new ways to build climate-conscious thinking into our practice. We recently released an ecological manifesto sharing what environmentally conscious theatre means to us.

Our ethos is one of collaboration and curiosity. We often devise from literary texts and the lives of cultural figures, using the past as a lens for the present and the source material as a springboard for play.

Our practice is ensemble-led, climate-conscious, inclusive, and subversive.

 We are a participant company in Rough Magic’s 2025-26 SEEDS programme, alongside Arínọlá.

Our work has been supported by the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, Dublin City Council, Fishamble, the OPW, Pan Pan, Trinity College Dublin Trust, and the Trinity Visual & Performing Arts Fund.

COMPANY MEMBERS 

  • Signe (she/her) is a Dublin-based theatre-maker originally from Bath. With Gift Horse, Signe wrote and directed Tess (TCD Rose Garden / South-East open-air tour, 2019-20) and harvest (The Greenhouse Theatre, 2023), co-producing all Gift Horse’s work until 2024. She co-wrote and performed in Gift Horse's Dublin Fringe debut don’t copy me (copy), which won the 2025 George Fitzmaurice Award, and her play Selfish was selected as part of Fishamble x ESB’s Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future (2021). She is also writer and director for ongoing Gift Horse project LEONORA. Signe was an axis Assemble artist 2023, and has been supported by the Arts Council, Creative Europe, CAMPO, and Pavilion Studio, among others. She has been assistant director to Gavin Quinn and Ronan Phelan, and has also worked with Pan Pan as a script editor. She is the Gate Theatre’s 2026 Resident Assistant Director.

  • Elishka is an actor, theatre-maker and producer from County Wexford. She is a core member of Gift Horse Theatre and has performed in and/or co-produced all of their productions.

    She is a member of Broad Strokes Improv, an all-female comedy improv troupe. Broad Strokes perform regularly in Dublin and performed two sold-out runs at Edinburgh Fringe 2022 & 2023. They were nominated for ‘Best Ensemble’ (2023) and won the 'Spirit of Wit Award' (2024) at the Dublin Fringe Awards.

    Recent stage credits include Castel Gandolfo (Four Rivers), Home (Barnstorm Theatre), Happy Birthday Dear Alice (Four Rivers, National Tour) and Tender Napalm (Smock Alley Theatre). She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Green Room Theatre Awards 2022 & 2024. Recent screen credits include Victorian Psycho which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, premiering in Ireland in September 2026. Elishka is also an indie-folk musician with a debut album on the way.

  • Sinéad Gallagher is a multidisciplinary creative producer based in Cork, Ireland. She holds an MA in Arts Management and Creative Producing from UCC and has worked as an independent producer and researcher in the arts. She is working with University College Cork on an Arts & Sustainability research project, and with Helium on their Creative Future Pathways programme. Recent producing credits include Rough Weekend with Gift Horse Theatre, and The Shape of Quiet Feelings national tour with Maisie Lee.

  • Doris de Vries (she/her) is a director, dramaturg, and theatre maker based between Dublin and Amsterdam. She is a director of Gift Horse Theatre, with whom she has directed four plays to date. Her 2025 Dublin Fringe Festival show don’t copy me (copy) was awarded the George Fitzmaurice Fringe Award. That year, she also made her Edinburgh Fringe directorial debut with Swiping Right by Sophie Anna Veelenturf/BERLIN (BE). Doris is Dead Centre’s Associate Artist for 2026; she is assisting them on their 2026 production and is receiving their mentorship in developing her new documentary theatre show called Weird Porn. She has assistant directed Ivo van Hove, Leopold Witte, and Olivier Diepenhorst (NL), and works as a dramaturg for emerging artists like David Roos (BE), Anne Meffert (NL), and Dominic O’Brien (IE).

ASSOCIATE ARTISTS

  • Mae is a costume designer from Waterford based in Dublin. Mae recently designed Deaf Republic with Dead Centre, in the Royal Court and then Dublin Theatre Festival, Theatre For One with Landmark in the Barbican and Good Sex, also with Dead Centre, recently ran off-Broadway in Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn. Other recent design work includes Illness as Metaphor, To Be A Machine (version 2.0) and Good Sex (Dead Centre), The Misanthrope, Playhouse Creatures (The Lir), Theatre For One and Theatre For One: Made in Cork (Landmark), The Devil May Care (TUD), Like We Were Born To Move (National Youth Theatre), Blue Thunder (Cathal Cleary and Kelly Phelan), LEONORA, don’t copy me (copy) (Gift Horse Theatre), The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Blackbird, Happy Birthday Dear Alice and Isla (Four Rivers) and Dubliners (Corn Exchange).

  • Cian is a theatre maker from County Dublin, working mainly as an actor, musician and composer on new collaborative work. As well as Gift Horse, he is a frequent collaborator of Can ai Gó, with whom he devised and performed in Pas de Panique in France, Catalonia, Norway and Ireland, and is developing new work with. Cian has trained in clown with Philippe Gaulier in France, and interned with German theatre company Rimini Protokoll in Switzerland. His work as a maker has been supported by the Arts Council, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Dublin Fringe Festival and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, among others.

  • Ciara Berkeley is a screen and theatre actress based in Dublin, and is represented by the BWH Agency. Ciara graduated with a BA in English Literature and Drama Studies from Trinity College Dublin in 2021, and has since starred in supporting roles in Lenny Abrahamson’s Normal People, Lisa McGee’s The Deceived and Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sisters, as well as found the award-winning all-women and nonbinary improv comedy troupe, Broad Strokes. Her most recent credits include the lead in IFTA long-listed feature thriller, Swing Bout, as well as the role of Jane Fairfax in the Abbey Theatre’s production of Emma, and the role of Toots in the Abbey Theatre’s production of Youth’s The Season -? Ciara is currently working on The Witcher IV video game, where she is performing voiceover and motion capture for the game’s protagonist, Ciri.

  • Daniel Montague O’Brien is a sound-designer, composer and engineer based in Dublin. He is currently a part-time student of Music and Media Technologies (M.Phil.) in Trinity College. Daniel has also designed and operated sound in venues across Dublin, including The Gate, The Samuel Beckett Theatre, and the Project Arts Centre. His most recent sound design credits include Hotel Eden dir. Katie O’Halloran (Project Arts Centre, 2026), Gift Horse Theatre's don’t copy me (copy) (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2025) and Blue House Theatre’s production of Glass Places (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2025).

  • Jilly McGrath is a queer multidisciplinary artist based in Dublin, working across photography, performance, film, and theatre. Her practice explores performativity, family, and Irish identity through a queer lens, often bringing together storytelling, collaboration, and visual experimentation. With an MA in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism from the University of the Arts London and a BA in Drama Studies and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin, her work is rooted in community engagement, intimate narratives, and a curiosity about people and place. Jilly has been a member of Gift Horse Theatre since 2022, working across performance, photography, and creative production. Her photographic work has been exhibited and published internationally, and she has been selected as a recipient of the Pan Pan International Mentorship Award 2026.

  • Anika Kidd is a set designer and theatre technician based in Dublin, Ireland. She holds a BA in Drama and Film studies from Trinity College Dublin. Since graduating in 2022, she has worked as a designer for screen and stage. She is currently an associate artist with Gift Horse Theatre Company, an environmentally conscious theatre company based in Dublin and has collaborated with them as a designer since 2021. Her design work includes modelmaking and propmaking for screen and stage.

    In 2024, she was the associate designer for Dead Centre and acted as Assistant Designer for their production Illness as Metaphor (Dublin Fringe Festival). Other recent theatre credits include Octopus Children (Dublin Fringe, 2025), don’t copy me (copy) (Dublin Fringe, 2025), Three Sisters (Gaiety Theatre, 2025), Lunch Punch Power Hour (Peacock Theatre, 2025).