LYRIC THEATRE ARCHIVE

CAITRÍONA MCLAUGHLIN Director

Caitríona is the Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre. She was born in Donegal and studied science at the University of Ulster before moving into theatre. She was Associate Director at the Abbey Theatre from 2017-2020, where her productions included: The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh (with Conall Morrison); Citysong by Dylan Coburn Gray (ITTA nomination Best New Play); On Raftery’s Hill by Marina Carr, (for which she won Best Director at the 2019 ITTA); and Two Pints by Roddy Doyle, which toured widely in Ireland and the USA. She also worked with theatre and opera companies on both sides of the border, including Wexford Opera, HotForTheatre, INO, The Local Group, and Landmark, and she was the director on O’Casey in the Estate, a TV documentary shown on RTÉ. Prior to moving into directing, with Patrick McCabe’s Frank Pig Says Hello at the Finborough Theatre in London in 2003, Caitríona worked as a drama facilitator in Northern Ireland, working with young people and in conflict resolution. In London, she directed numerous productions, focusing primarily on new writing, and collaborated with the Royal Court in sourcing and developing a new theatre space. She was awarded a Clore Fellowship in 2007 and subsequently spent six summers with LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York developing new plays for Artistic Directors John Ortiz and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, at their Summer Intensive. During this time

Caitríona also directed a number of plays in New York including Killers and other Family (part of the OBIE awardwinning Hilltown Plays) and plays at Atlantic Theatre, Rattlestick, and Bard Summerscape.

JOANNA PARKER Set Design

Joanna designs sets and costumes for theatre, opera and dance. Based in London, she works nationally and internationally. Theatre designs: Zoe’s Peculiar Journey Through Time (Burgtheater/ Theatre Rites); Much Ado About Nothing (Globe); iGirl, Walls and Windows, On Rafferty’s Hill (Abbey Theatre); The Noise of Time (Complicité, Lincoln Center New York and world tour); Le Misanthrope, American Buffalo (Young Vic); After Darwin (Hampstead); The Sarajevo Story (Lyric Hammersmith); Off Camera (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Robbers (Gate).

Opera designs: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Glyndebourne); Aida, Turandot, Andrea Chenier (ON); Carmen (Grange Festival); The Commission, Café Kafka (ROH, Aldeburgh Music); Giulio Cesare (ROH); The Two Widows (Angers-Nantes Opéra); Flavio, Eugene Onegin, Falstaff, Alcina, Le nozze di Figaro, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cunning Little Vixen (ETO).

Catherine Fay

Costume Design

Catherine Fay designs for Theatre, Opera and Dance. Catherine’s work at The Abbey includes Portia Coughlan, iGirl, Walls and Windows and 14 Voices from the Bloodied Field, The Plough and the Stars (ITTA nomination 2017), Our Few and Evil Days (ITTA nomination 2015), Henry IV Part I (ITTA/ESB Theatre Award nomination 2007). She has recently designed Outrage, The Treaty and Embargo (Fishamble Theatre Company). Elektra (Irish National Opera) Transmission (Little Wolf); GLUE (Rough Magic Theatre Company); Näher . . . nearer, closer, sooner (Liz Roche Dance Company); The Return of Ulysses (Opera Collective Ireland); Orfeo ed Euridice (Irish National Opera). She designed Girl Song (United Fall); 12 Minute Dances, Totems (Liz Roche Dance Company); Owen Wingrave (Opera Collective Ireland); Acis and Galatea (Opera Theatre Company); The Importance of Nothing (Pan Theatre Company); and Owen Wingrave (Opera Bastille, Paris, 2016). to Romeo and Juliet (ITTA nomination 2016) and The Threepenny Opera (The Gate Theatre). Other work includes Breaking Dad (Landmark Productions, ITTA nomination 2015); and Dogs (Emma Martin Dance, Winner Best Production and Best Design for ABSOLUT Fringe Festival 2012).

Paul Keogan

Lighting Design

Paul designs lighting and set for theatre, opera & dance. He works nationally and internationally. Recent lighting designs include: Portia Coughlan, Walls And Windows, Citysong, Last Orders At The Dockside, Katie Roche (Abbey Theatre); Scandaltown, Love Love Love, The Plough And The Stars (Lyric Hammersmith); Doubt (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Naked Hand, Double Cross, Here Comes The Night (Lyric Theatre Belfast); Happy Days, Blood In The Dirt, Postcards From The Ledge (Landmark Productions); The Visiting Hour, Hamlet, The Snapper (Gate Theatre Dublin); I Think We Are Alone (Frantic Assembly tour); Cyprus Avenue (Abbey Theatre, MAC Belfast, Public Theater NY, Royal Court); The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic); The Gaul, A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian (Hull Truck); Far Away (Corcadorca Theatre Company).

Set and Lighting designs include: The Treaty, Duck Duck Goose (Fishamble, Dublin), Return of Ulysses (Opera Collective Ireland); Elektra (Irish National Opera); Shirley Valentine (Lyric Theatre Belfast).

Lighting designs for opera include: Fidelo, 20 Shots Of Opera (film), Aida, The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera); The Gondoliers, Utopia Ltd (Scottish Opera, D’Oyly Carte Opera, State Opera South Australia).

Lighting designs for dance include: Dyad (Justine Doswell); Sama, Flight (Rambert); Lost, Giselle (Ballet Ireland); No Man’s Land (English National Ballet and Queensland Ballet)

CARL KENNEDY Sound Design

Carl Kennedy is a composer and sound designer for theatre. He trained at Academy of Sound in Dublin. He has worked on numerous theatre productions, working with venues and companies including The Abbey, Lyric Theatre, The Gate, The Gaiety, Landmark, ANU Productions, Fishamble: The New Play Company, Rough Magic, Decadent, Theatre Lovett, HOME Manchester, Prime Cut Productions, HotForTheatre, Speckintime and Graffiti. Recent productions include The Lonesome West at The Gaiety Theatre and Outrage with Fishamble: The New Play Company. He has been nominated three times for the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Sound Design. He has made a number of audio pieces for installation and radio, working with ANU, Upstate Theatre Project, various museums in Dublin City and many others. He recently created Cloud Assembly, a piece for voices and music about life during the pandemic. He also composes music and sound design for radio, TV and video games. He was composer and sound designer for Mr Wall on RTÉJr which was shortlisted for an IMRO Radio Award in the 2018 drama category. Game titles include Curious George, Curious about Shapes and Colors, Jelly Jumble, Too Many Teddies, Dino Dog and Leonardo and His Cat. TV credits include sound design for 16 Letters (Independent Pictures/RTÉ) and SFX editing and foley recording for Centenary (RTÉ).

SUE MYTHEN Movement Director

Sue’s work as a Movement Director at the Abbey Theatre includes: iGirl, Citysong, On Raftery’s Hill, Crestfall (Druid), Oedipus, Shadow of a Gunman (with The Lyric), RUR, Hedda Gabler, Twelfth Night, Plough & the Stars, Heartbreak House, 16 Possible Glimpses, The House, The Rivals, Pygmalion and Major Barbara. Other work includes To the Lighthouse (Everyman Theatre), Conversations after Sex, (Project/Mermaid), Our New Girl (Gate Theatre), Asking For It (Everyman/Gaiety/Birmingham Rep.), Flights (Project Arts Centre), Private Peaceful (Pavilion/US Tour), The White Devil (Shakespeare’s Globe) and The Heiress (Project Arts Centre). Sue has worked in Canada, Italy, Denmark and UK and she has a long collaboration with ANU which includes The Lost O’Casey, Sin Eaters, On Corporation Street, Sunder, Pals and Angel Meadow. Movement for opera includes: Elektra (Canadian Opera Company), Radamisto (NI Opera), Semele (RIAM), Il Ballo delle Ingrate (RIAM/Abbey) and Dead Man Walking (Gaiety).

On film Sue worked on Northanger Abbey (ITV Drama), History’s Future (CineArtNederland), Normal People (Element/BBC), Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix), Modern Love (Amazon), Kin (Bron/RTÉ) and Smother (RTÉ/BBC).

Sue is Head of Movement at The Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin.

ANDREA AINSWORTH Voice Director

Andrea Ainsworth is one of the leading voice specialists in Ireland. She has been the Voice Director of the Abbey Theatre since 1995, working closely with both Irish and international directors on all productions in the Abbey and Peacock theatres including premiers of plays by: Seamus Heaney, Tom Murphy, Frank McGuinness, Marina Carr, Conor McPherson and Tom Kilroy. She has taught in drama schools in London and on the professional actor training programme in the School of Drama, Trinity College Dublin from 1995 until 2008. She has worked with most of the independent theatre companies in Ireland, most recently on Hamlet with Ruth Negga in The Gate theatre and in New York in 2020. She also coaches actors for film and TV roles.

As part of the Abbey’s Theatre Skills for Business, she offers coaching and bespoke voice and communication workshops for a variety of business clients.

Recent directing work includes: Every Brilliant Thing staring Amy Conroy in the Peacock followed by a national tour.

LAURA SHEERAN Assistant Director

Laura Sheeran is a multidisciplinary artist and director from Galway, currently living in Dublin. Laura has a background in music and works frequently as a video artist with musicians and performers. Laura began composing music for theatre in 2004 before moving into sound design, AV design and finally directing. In 2016 Laura began directing dance and now regularly incorporates dance in her work, both for stage and film. Laura is the performance director of Ireland’s leading contemporary music group, Crash Ensemble, and is one of the Abbey Theatre’s resident directors for 2022.

Owen

Based in Dublin, Leonard is a graduate of RADA London. Since graduating, his credits have included the world premiere of Andrea Levy’s The Long Song at Chichester Festival Theatre (dir. Charlotte Gwinner); Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast; The Great Season 2; and the BBC Sounds docudrama Touchdown.

Whilst at RADA, Leonard’s roles included Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest (dir. Neil Bartlett); Various in The Laramie Project (dir. Kristine Landon-Smith); and Oliver in As You Like It (dir. Nancy Meckler). Prior to training, he performed in Sugarglass Theatre’s production of Outlying Islands (dir. Marc Atkinson Borrull); The David Fragments: After Brecht (dir. Nicholas Johnson); Gays Against the Free State! and Love À La Mode: After Macklin (dir. Colm Summers).

Maire

Zara is an actress from County Tyrone. She graduated from the Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin in 2018 and on the same year made her debut performance as Sorrel in Marina Carr’s On Raftery’s Hill at the Abbey Theatre. She was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.

Other Theatre - Richard III (Druid Theatre Company), The Glass Menagerie (Gate Theatre), Hecuba (Rough Magic), Sing Street (New York Theatre Workshop), Dear Ireland (Abbey Theatre), There Are Little Kingdoms, The Lonesome West (Decadent).

TV and Film: A Bump Along The Way, The Other Lamb, Ann, Modern Love, and most recently NIGHTMAN.

Andy Doherty

Doalty

Andy is from Derry and is delighted to be a part of such a fantastic production. Verging on 30 and doesn’t want to talk about it. He is excited to be back in Belfast and where he trained at the Lyric Drama Studio.

Most recent theatre work includes, The White Handkerchief (The Guildhall) Albino Parts (The Playhouse). Recent film work includes, Can’t Cry and Bump Along The Way.

Brian Doherty

Hugh

Theatre work includes The Wake, Three Sisters, Down the Line and Tarry Flynn at the Abbey Theatre; All The Angels, Hecuba, Pentecost & Improbable Frequency with Rough Magic; The Seagull, Sive and Famine with Druid, Common and Aristocrats at the Royal National Theatre; Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, Little Eagles, The Drunks, Macbeth, God in Ruins and Great Expectations for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Father, From Here To Eternity, Stones in his Pockets (West End); Tomcat for Papatango at Southwark Playhouse; A Steady Rain at Theatre Royal Bath; Narratives at the Royal Court; The Red Iron, Happy Birthday Dear Alice, The Crucible for Red Kettle; Evening Train at The Everyman Theatre, Cork.

TV includes Resistance, Trigonometry, Witless, Raw, Pure Mule, Fair City, Casualty and Glenroe

Film includes Dreamhorse, A Street Cat Named Bob, Perrier’s Bounty and Garage.

Holly Hannaway

Bridget

Holly is an actor and comedian from Newry, based between Belfast and London. Holly trained at the Lyric Theatre Drama Studio and was an artist in residence with Amadan (a Belfast based clown and bouffon theatre company).

Theatre credits include: The Grimm Hotel (Cahoots NI); The Playboy of the Western World (Gaiety Theatre/ Lyric Theatre Belfast); Windows 21 (Abbey Theatre); The Heresy of Love (Lyric Theatre Belfast); Lessons in Love and Violence (Royal Opera House); Tactics for Time Travel in a Toilet (Theatre of Pluck).

Other credits include: I Believe Her (Three’s Theatre Company); Mimi’s World (Channel 5); Eat The Rich (RTÉ); Slippery When Wet (No Touching Festival); The Secret Life of Balloons (BBC); School for Good and Evil (Netflix) and their own one woman comedy cabaret Jingle Belle (Belfast Comedy Festival).

Ronan Leahy

Jimmy Jack

Work at the Abbey includes Oedipus, King Lear, Drum Belly, Curse of the Starving Class, Macbeth, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, Da, Living Quarters, Observatory, Observe the Sons of Ulster, At Swim-Two-Birds, The Passion of Jerome, Monkey, By the Bog of Cats, The Man Who Became a Legend, Sé Mouse, The Well of the Saints, Philadelphia Here I Come, The Doctor’s Dilemma and The Corsican Brothers. Other theatre includes Blackbird (Four Rivers). Least Like the Other (INO). Signatories, Borstal Boy (Verdant). Wuthering Heights, An Enemy of the People, Festen, All My Sons (Gate Theatre). Hecuba, The Effect, The Critic, Travesties, Life is a Dream, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer (Rough Magic). The Colleen Bawn, Gentrification (Druid). The Winter’s Tale, The Hairy Ape (Corcadorca). Medea, Titus Andronicus and La Musica (Siren). Moment (Tall Tales). Gagarin Way (Island). Pyrenees (Hatch). Invitation to a Journey (CoisCéim ). Tiny plays for Ireland and America, Inside the GPO, End of the Road, Whereabouts, The Flesh Addict (Fishamble). Roberto Zucco, Pale Angel, Wideboy Gospel and Melon Farmer (Bedrock). Mister Staines (Pan Pan). The Chairs (Tinderbox).

Aidan Moriarty

Lieutenant Yolland

Aidan is a graduate of Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin. He recently played Oswald in The Enemy Within at An Grianán which was directed by Caitríona McLaughlin. He played Chris in Fishamble’s production of Duck Duck Goose which was directed by Jim Cuttleton and presented at the 2021 Dublin Theatre Festival. Since graduating, he has worked on developments of What The Telly Saw and The Tempest, both directed by Lynne Parker.

Whilst at The Lir, Aidan performed in productions of Blood Wedding (Dir. Caitríona McLaughlin), The Merchant of Venice (Dir. Lynne Parker) Anatomy of a Suicide (Dir. Tom Creed) and Comedy of Errors (Dir. Mikel Murfi). He also performed in Hostel 16 ( Dir. Raymond Keane) at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2016.

MARTY REA Manus

Marty graduated from RADA in 2002 with a BA degree in acting. He has won ITTA Best Actor for Hamlet (2011) and DruidShakespeare (2016), Best Supporting Actor for King of the Castle and The Great Gatsby (2018) and a Herald Angel Award in the Edinburgh Festival for Waiting for Godot (2018). Theatre includes: Portia Coughlan, 14 Voices From the Bloodied Field, Dear Ireland (an unreliable ex-lover suddenly writes), Thirst (and other bits of Flann), Richard III, Othello, She Stoops To Conquer, The Hanging Gardens, Major Barbara, John Gabriel Borkman, The Rivals, Only An Apple, The Big House, Saved, The Importance of Being Earnest (Abbey Theatre), End of the Beginning, The Seagull, DruidGregory, The Cherry Orchard, The Beacon, Epiphany, Richard III, King of the Castle, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Waiting For Godot, DruidShakespeare, Brigit, Be Infants in Evil, The Colleen Bawn, DruidMurphy (Druid Theatre).

Suzie Seweify

Sarah

Suzie is an actor and writer based in Dublin. She is originally Irish Egyptian, born in Bahrain and reared in Abu Dhabi. She received her training at the Gaiety School of Acting and is one of Dublin Fringe’s WEFT studio artists. She is delighted to be returning to the Lyric stage!

Theatre credits include: Rough Girls (Lyric Theatre Belfast), YARA (Smock Alley Theatre), Aladdin (Gaiety Theatre Panto).

Other credits include: Storytellers (RTÉ).

Howard Teale

Captain Lancey Howard trained at Mountview Theatre School and at the Science of Acting. He is delighted to be a part of Translations which will be his first production at both the Lyric Theatre and the Abbey Theatre.

Theatre includes: Clandestine Marriage (Queen’s Theatre); A Doll’s House (Playhouse Theatre); The Seagull (UK Tour, Thelma Holt); The Merchant of Venice (Birmingham Rep.); The Robbers; The Relapse (Glasgow Citizens); Miss Julie (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Irish Blood, English Heart (Trafalgar Studios), Mariluise (The Gate); The Gentleman’s Tea Drinking Society (Ransom Productions, Belfast); On the Subject of Love (Derry Playhouse); The Factory Girls (Millennium Forum, Derry & Irish Tour); Bunny’s Vendetta (Blue Eagle Productions, Derry); Anniversary Sweet; Push; Eight Foot Leap; Confusions (Union Theatre).

Television includes: East Enders; Holby City; Doctors; Waking the Dead; The Bill; Spooks; The Good Citizen; Aircraft Investigations (Discovery).

On 30th April 2011 the Lyric Theatre, Belfast reopened its doors in the new theatre we stand in today.

Brian Friel reopned our theatre with these words:

‘A new theatre can be the most exciting building in any city . It can be the home of miracles and epiphanies and revelations and renovations. And building a new theatre – especially in times like these – is both an act of fortitude and a gesture of faith in your community.

Because what you are saying to that community is this: this is your playhouse – come and play with us here; give us your trust and in return we will entertain you and enlighten you and lead you into that secret land of mystery and of the spirit , that we tend to overlook in the course of our lives.’

Liam Neeson Patron of The Lyric Theatre

“Back in 1980, I played the part of Doalty in Brian Friel’s new play Translations for Field Day Theatre Company which opened at the Guildhall in Derry. It was a vital work of theatre then and remains so today. It depicts with compassion and ingenious stage-craft the vibrancy of language, the complexity of love and the destruction of colonial expansion. It shows how the echoes of our shared history have shaped us. It is, in its perfectly compact way, a true Irish epic.

Later this month, a major new production of Translations opens at the Lyric Theatre, and then plays at the Abbey Theatre. It’s a partnership that has been forged between the main theatre in the north and the main theatre in the south, and will then go on to tour venues throughout Ireland during the summer.

I would like to send on my hearty congratulations and best wishes to the entire company of Translations, in safe hands with Caitriona and Jimmy, and the whole team at the Lyric.”

Robinson (Chairman)

Stephen Douds (Vice Chairman)

Nuala Donnelly

Patricia McBride

Mike Mullan

Dr Mark Phelan

PATRON

Liam Neeson OBE

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Jimmy Fay

SENIOR PRODUCER

Morag Keating

CASTING DIRECTOR

Clare Gault

LITERARY MANAGER

Rebecca Mairs

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Kerry Fitzsimmons

HEAD OF FINANCE & HR

Micheál Meegan

FINANCE OFFICER

Toni Harris Patton

FINANCE ASSISTANT

Sinéad Glymond

FINANCE & HR ASSISTANT

Barry Leonard

FINANCE & ADMIN ASSISTANT

Shireen Azarmi

HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING

Claire Murray

MARKETING MANAGER

Rachel Leitch

MARKETING OFFICERS

Katie Armstrong

Emma Brennan

Lucy Brownlie

DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Éimear O’Neill

HEAD OF PRODUCTION

Adrian Mullan

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Siobhán Barbour

COMPANY STAGE MANAGER

Aimee Yates

STAGE MANAGERS

Louise Graham

Stephen Dix

TECHNICAL MANAGER

Arthur Oliver-Brown

SENIOR TECHNICIAN (LIGHTING & SOUND)

Ian Vennard