Written and performed by Padraig Dooney
With Music and Sound Design by Padraig Dooney
Directed by Giles Brody

Boys’ School
Smock Alley Theatre

20 – 23 Jan 2026 (including preview on Tues 20 Jan)

Original Director Sophie Merry
Sound Engineer Michael Brady
Lighting Designer Ciarán Gallagher
Videographer Sophie Merry
Producer Bernie Bourke (Teatro Nua)

Teatro Nua Productions is delighted to announce that having been developed at Scene + Heard 2025 Padraig Dooney’s Please Hold is returning to the Boys School for four nights from 20 – 23 January 2026.

A youngish man occupies a liminal space where he composes hold music and plays it live down the phone to those trapped in purgatorial waiting rooms queuing for customer care and technical support.

The centre of his own epic universe, he treats his audience to a master class on how to create transient soundscapes using nothing more than a saxophone and a load of synths. A one-man tragicomedy about art and delusion, Please Hold will take you on a psychological journey into the oft forgotten liminal world of hold music.
Booking Link:
Please Hold @ Smock Alley<https://smockalley.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873660607>

Padraig Dooney is a Dublin based actor, musician, composer and sound designer and one of the co-founders of Teatro Nua. He is a classically trained saxophonist with nearly two decades of experience performing nationwide, who also sings, plays clarinet, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Padraig trained as an actor at Bow Street Academy of Screen Acting. He plays saxophone with the spoken word band Shakalak, fronted by Poetician John Cummins. He is also member of Bum Notes, the critically acclaimed Dublin based musical improv team. Recent theatre credits include: The Musicians of Bremen LIVE! (Segerstrom Centre for the Arts, California), Sketcherella (Smock Alley Theatre), No Citation (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), The Commitments West End and UK Tour (Phil McIntyre Productions) and A Dickensian Christmas (Ha-Hum-Ah Theatre). As well as being a composer and sound designer Padraig is a musical director who has worked most recently as Musical Director on Poor at the Gate Theatre which is returning for a limited six-week run in 2026.

Giles Brody is a comedian and director from Galway. His recent theatre directing credits include the farce "ENDS" (2025), the dark comedy "THE MURDER TRUST OF MIKE MALLOY" (2020) and the Dublin Fringe musical "TRIAL OF THE CENTURYS" (2018). Giles has written scripts for the YLE cartoon series "Joy Eternal" and jokes for RTE shows such as the IFTAs, "Clear History" and "Irish Pictorial Weekly" . Giles won the 2020 Galway Film Fleadh Pitching competition. He also acts and plays Principal Close in the RTE Comedy series "Showkids".

Bernie Bourke is an educator and freelance theatre producer who completed the inaugural MFA in Theatre Producing at the Lir Academy in 2025, and most recently produced Kyron Bourke’s No Citation at the Lyric, Belfast, Smock Alley, Dublin and the Derry Playhouse, Seán and Padraig Dooney’s Shelf and Padraig Dooney’s  Please Hold at Smock Alley (Scene + Heard) and Kyron Bourke Celebrates Leonard Cohen at the Lyric in Belfast and The Court House in Bangor. Bernie has recently joined Once Off Productions Producer Development Programme as a Line Producer having worked as assistant producer on the recent production of Brian Friel’s version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at Smock Alley.