The Alice Project
created by Asylum Productions

700 years ago, Dame Alice Kyteler was the first woman in Ireland to be tried for heresy. She fled Kilkenny, and her servant Petronella was tried and convicted in her stead, then publicly burned alive on the main street of Kilkenny.

Publicly. Burned. Alive.

This is not their story. But it might be.

In 2025, audiences enjoyed a sneak preview of some of the chapters of The Alice Project, including a brief, intimate, one-to-one encounter with Alice in a secret city centre location in The Words of Alice, and an audience with her archnemesis: the dreaded DeLedrede in The Words of Dred.

In 2026 acclaimed theatre company Asylum Productions (Big Chapel X, The Local) will return to the Kilkenny Arts Festival for an epic reimagining of the tale of the Kilkenny Witch Trials.

Sneak preview performances of The Alice Project were held at the Kilkenny Arts Festival from 7-16 August 2025. Performances for the 2026 Kilkenny Arts Festival are to be announced.

This project is funded by Kilkenny County Council’s Public Art Programme 2024-2026. Funded by the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage and by the Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon.