Saving for a Helicopter wins the Bewley’s Café Theatre Little Gem Award at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2026.
We were thrilled that our inhouse production of Saving for a Helicopter by Letterkenny’s Gráinne Curistan was named the winner of the prestigious Little Gem Award this weekend. It marks the culmination of a very successful run at the festival, which saw the play earn glowing reviews from critics and audience alike, including a 4 star review in The Irish Times (“a bravura performance, achieving poignancy and humour in equal doses.”) and a 5 star review in For The Plot Magazine (“sparkles with life and laughter…full of love, hope, laughter and just enough heartbreak.”)
Inspired by her own experience as someone living with an inherited illness, the play charts Gráinne’s journey from carefree childhood to the clinical realities of dialysis, transplant lists, and uncertain futures.
Bewley’s Café Theatre is Ireland’s foremost presenter of lunchtime theatre and sponsors the Little Gem Award for the most exciting show presented at the festival under 60 minutes. As the winning production, Saving for a Helicopter earns a two-week run at Bewley’s Café Theatre next year, with €3,000 available to remount the production.
Huge congratulations to Gráinne and the Helicopter team (see here for full credits).
Bursary Success
Before becoming a full-fledged An Grianán Theatre production, Saving for a Helicopter was one of our 2025 Acorn Bursary recipients and it was great to see two of our other Acorn Bursary projects also enjoy success at the festival, Carley Magee’s Growing Pains and Genevieve Hulme-Beaman’s Ratling.
Remarkably, all three plays made the shortlist of five for the Fishamble New Writing Award. Ratling was also shortlisted for Best Production, won the Best Design Award, while Hulme-Beaman was named Best Performer.
About An Grianán’s Acorn Bursaries
Now in its second year, our bursary awards provide successful applicants with a financial bursary of either €1000 or €2000, as well as other supports such as rehearsal space, creative conversations and development support sessions with our Artist-in-Residence Ultan Pringle and our wider leadership team. Currently closed for applications, if you are a theatre practitioner based in or from the north west, be sure to follow our social media channels or subscribe to our newsletter for news of when the next round opens for applications.
About Dublin Fringe Festival
Established in 1995, Dublin Fringe Festival is the agenda-setting festival for new work in Ireland, devoted to talent development and artform development. It is a platform for new and emerging artists in Ireland to showcase their work and offers artists at every stage of their career an opportunity to challenge, subvert and invigorate their disciplines and practice.
