Philadelphia Here I Come Programme 2014

PHIladElPHIa, HERE I coME!

By BRIaN FRIEl

DIRECTED BY ANDREW FLYNN

THURSday 6 FEBRUaRy – SaTURday 8 MaRcH 2014

PREVIEWS: SUNday 2, TUESday 4 & WEdNESday 5 FEBRUaRy

Molly

SWEENEy

BY BRIAN FRIEL

WEdNESday 12 FEBRUaRy – SaTURday 08 MaRcH 2014

PREVIEWS: SaTURday 8, SUNday 9 & TUESday 11 FEBRUaRy

BoX oFFIcE / 028 9038 1081

Book oNlINE / WWW.lyRIcTHEaTRE.co.Uk

The new Lyric Theatre has been built thanks to the extraordinary generosity of people from all walks of life, including schools, businesses, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, amateur drama groups, writers, artists, performers and politicians.

WElcoME

Welcome to a great new season of theatre at the Lyric featuring the best of established Irish theatre, modern drama and new comedy.

The recent visit of our Patron, Liam Neeson, could not have come at a more appropriate time, as we are proud to present a new production of the play in which he starred here nearly forty years ago –Philadelphia, Here I Come!. An acclaimed revival of Molly Sweeney subsequently opens in the Naughton Studio, completing the line-up for our muchanticipated Brian Friel double bill. We look forward to celebrating the work of Ireland’s greatest living playwright in the year of his 85th birthday.

2014 marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Our May production of How Many Miles to Babylon? serves as a poignant reminder of how deeply that conflict affected so many people on this island. It is a moving tale of friendship, and this sympathetic stage version is a testament to the enduring popularity of the novel by Jennifer Johnston, widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most important writers, from which it is adapted.

Meanwhile, running concurrently in the Naughton Studio, Demented is a comedy by the award-winning local playwright Gary Mitchell. This production marks the continuation of the Lyric’s long-standing tradition of supporting new writing.

Important too, is our second comedy of the season, Can’t Forget About You, which also debuted in the Naughton Studio last year, and which makes the leap to our main Danske Bank Stage in June. The Lyric is delighted that this very popular piece, which was written by the theatre’s former playwrightin-residence, David Ireland, has proved to be so successful. It’s a tremendous vote of confidence in the creative team behind the production that it will now be brought to a whole new audience on the main stage of Northern Ireland’s only fully professional, producing theatre.

Special mention must be made of the Abbey Theatre’s visiting production of the Belfast playwright Owen McCafferty’s award-winning play, Quietly. It was a big winner in Edinburgh last year and the Irish Times called it the best new play of the year. It’s only here for one week, but for anyone who’s seriously interested in theatre and the politics of this place, Quietly is an absolute must-see.

Finally, following the success of the Lyric’s distinctive take on Cinderella last Christmas, booking is now open for Sleeping Beauty, which promises spectacle and festive fun for all the family.

Thanks go once again to our principal funders, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, Danske Bank, along with the many other organisations, companies and individuals whose steadfast support enables the Lyric to fulfil its aim of staging top class drama that showcases Northern Ireland for all the right reasons.

Thank you for your continued support.

MaRk caRRUTHERS ChAIRMAN, LYRIC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

1. Liam Neeson as Gar Private in the Lyric’s 1976 production; 2. Lyric Patron Liam Neeson with Mark Carruthers and Sid McDowell, Lyric Board of Trustees; 3, 4 & 5 Liam with The Cast of Philadelphia, Here I Come!

PRogRaMME NoTE

Many things have changed since 1964, and yet some things remain the same. Between April 2012 and April 2013 almost 90,000 emigrated from the South of Ireland, with 25,000 leaving the North in 2011 and more than 1,000 emigrating every month last year. Since the economic collapse of 2008, almost 400,000 emigrated from the Republic to seek better prospects and possibilities in Britain, Australia, America and Europe. Like Gar before them, most of them were young and employed and left rural communities, many of which now struggle to field full football teams.

What has changed, however, is that emigration now cuts both ways as over the past two decades we’ve witnessed seismic social changes with the rapid, radical transformation of Ireland from an isle of emigrant emissaries into an immigrant host. Portuguese, Polish, Filipinos, Africans and Asians have all added colour and complexity to our society and though, for some, the changes they’ve precipitated serve only to accentuate differences and divisions, it perhaps behoves us to reflect instead on our shared experiences, given that every family on this island has felt the impact of emigration. More than most, we should be familiar with the inexorable forces that drive people to leave homes and families for far-off shores.

So if some things have changed whilst others remain the same, then Friel’s work seems singularly suited to tracing the shifting contours of our changing landscape as it consistently explores the blurred borders between tradition and modernity. Emigration continues to blight many lives even though technological changes in transport and telecommunications have diminished the distances and difficulties of exile, though they can never wholly solve or salve the pain of separation. A striking manifestation of such change and continuity played out last Easter, a few miles from Friel’s home, at a cousin’s wedding in Redcastle, Donegal. The bride’s twin brother couldn’t be there, for he was stranded in Philadelphia where he’s worked for years as an electrician, sharing the same purgatorial plight of so many other immigrant Irish, who cannot return home for weddings or funerals for fear of forfeiting lives and prospects that cannot be found at home. The whole wedding though: its ceremony, speeches, dancing and even its later sing song, were all streamed live on Skype via iPad and the hotel’s wi-fi to the spectral twin in Philly: a fascinating embodiment of public and private and of how contexts have changed even though circumstances have not.

And it is for this reason, amongst others, that Philadelphia possesses an enduring political voltage and valency for contemporary audiences. Plays like this are classics because their continuing relevance transcends both time and space as the imaginative geography of Ballybeg can be understood everywhere by audiences easily able to identify their own Ballybeg, or however, and wherever, you translate ‘small town’.

dR MaRk PHElaN QUEEN’S UNIvERSITY BELFAST DRAMA DEPARTMENT AND LYRIC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

THE SoNgS oF PHIladElPHIa, HERE I coME!

The plays of Ireland frequently resound with song. From Dion Boucicault to Sean O’Casey, John B. Keane to Stewart Parker, generations of dramatists have enriched their stage plays with songs and singing, and Brian Friel is no exception. Amongst those performed in Philadelphia, Here I Come! is ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ and its eerily moving melody enhances the emotional connection an audience feels with Gar O’Donnell and his lament for what might have been with his love, Kate Doogan.

Exactly how certain melodies possess this alchemical capacity to arouse emotional responses remains a mystery. However, as Friel recognises, there are clear links between song and memory. As individuals we link songs with certain places, people and experiences. For Gar, another of the play’s songs, ‘All Round My Hat I’ll Wear a Green Coloured Ribbono’, evokes memories of happier days spent fishing with his father, whilst at the heart of Philadelphia is Friel’s masterful juxtaposition of two culturally diverse songs that serve to underline Gar’s dilemma as to where he belongs.

These two songs are both present in the title of the play, for scratch the surface of Al Jolson’s ‘California, Here I Come’ and another song is revealed: ‘Off to Philadelphia’. This traditional Irish emigration ballad is explicitly referenced in the play (‘I’m off to Philadelphey, and I’ll leave you on the shelfey’), and it implicitly maps the narrative contours for the drama as its lyrics recount the tale of another young man torn between adventure across the ocean, and those things which bind him to the land of his birth (including a love called Kate). When Friel’s play first premiered in 1964, this song would have been closely associated with John McCormack’s recording from 1940 and would have connoted a sense of Irishness typified by the older generation from which Gar feels alienated.

‘California, Here I Come’, on the other hand, evokes America: a land of infinite possibilities. Indeed, it has been said that the song played an important role in advertising the charms of California to potential migrants. Moreover, in the early 1960s it was a song appropriated by a youth music of the showbands. Turning their backs on traditional Irish music, the showbands looked to Americana for inspiration, imitating the Rock ‘n’ Roll sounds of Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, and lesser known acts such as Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Cannon, who reached number 25 on the UK charts in 1960 with his version of ‘California, Here I Come’ (note that Gar’s performance of the song ends with the seemingly referential ‘boomboom-boom-boom’). By 1964 the Irish charts were dominated by groups such as ‘Dickie Rock and the Miami’ and ‘Joe Dolan and the Drifters’, names Friel slyly parodies with Gar’s reference to ‘Kenny O’Byrne and the Ballybeg Buggers’, as Gar’s younger generation increasingly tuned into the escapist fantasies of the showband repertoire.

Fifty years on, it is perhaps difficult for us to appreciate just how effectively Friel’s application of these two songs expressed the contrapuntal push and pull of forces that complicated Gar’s decision to emigrate. However, as we now take our seats and enter into the world of Ballybeg we should consider the songs as more than mere embellishments, but rather as integral components of the exquisite craftsmanship which distinguishes the works of Friel.

JoSEPH gREENWood WAS ThE RECIPIENT OF QUEEN’S UNIvERSITY BELFAST’S BRIAN FRIEL AWARD AND RECENTLY SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED hIS PhD DISSERTATION WhICh INvESTIgATED ThE ROLE OF SONg IN IRISh ThEATRE

Brian Friel as photographed by Bobbie Hanvey

“ThIS IS YOUR PLAYhOUSE COME AND PLAY WITh US hERE” BRIaN FRIEl

PERHaPS yoU’ll WRITE ME

The play describes the imminent, voluntary departure of a 25-year-old man from Ireland for the USA, a situation that is scarcely unfamiliar in the years since the Celtic Tiger got stuffed in 2008. Yet there are many reasons why the situation that Friel describes might feel fairly distant to us. After all, Friel’s play first appeared half a century ago, and is firmly rooted in the migrant experience of the mid-twentieth century, a time when Catholic archbishops seriously warned migrants that ‘it is so easy to be led astray’ by the ‘materialist’s paradise’ that they might find overseas. Friel’s play describes a world in which even a sip of Coca-Cola or a bite of a hamburger could acquire a quasi-mythical status when imagined from the isolation of small-town Donegal.

By contrast, today’s worldly ‘transnationals’ often migrate back and forth, with little thought that leaving home need be a particularly longstanding arrangement. After all, anyone with access to Skype or Google can keep in touch with people back home, hearing sports or news events at exactly the same time as they happen. So, if everything has changed, why does Friel’s play retain its fascination? Many other plays from this era now emerge rather creakily onto the stage, whereas Philadelphia remains vital and entertaining.

Perhaps part of the reason is that, as Friel himself remarked, ‘I don’t think the play specifically concerns the question of emigration. Philadelphia was an analysis of a kind of love: the love between a father and a son and between a son and his birthplace’. And Philadelphia exposes both of those loves as complex and difficult, freighted with the kind of ambiguities and tensions that many of us will recognize. We may wish to escape our fathers and our homes, but as King Oedipus and Prince Hamlet also found, that influence of father and home usually remains stuck fast with us throughout the rest of our lives. Indeed, one of my favourite lines in all of Friel’s work comes when Boyle advises Gar to “Forget Ballybeg and Ireland”, only to add, in the next breath, “Perhaps you’ll write me”.

Formally, in this play Friel also made the remarkable decision to have two actors playing just one character. As you will see in the production, Private Gar provides a counterpoint to Public Gar, showing the difference between the individual’s outward behavior and his interior thoughts and desires. People like me who study theatre are apt to get rather carried away by the thought that much of day-to-day life can be discussed in terms of ‘performance theory’. But in Philadelphia, Friel demonstrates this idea more effectively than any theorist. The character of Gar emphasises that we are all the main characters in our own dramatic scripts, which we are continually writing, performing, and refining throughout our time on this great stage of fools.

By including this device in Philadelphia, Friel announced in 1964 that – although he could of course have made his name in any form of writing –he was a quintessentially theatrical writer who had a great eye for the way in which successful drama might operate. Playhouse audiences knew that they would be hearing from him again. And they were right.

JaMES MoRaN

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT ThE UNIvERSITY OF NOTTINghAM AND A MID CAREER FELLOW OF ThE BRITISh ACADEMY. hIS BOOK ‘ThE ThEATRE OF SEAN O’CASEY’ WAS PUBLIShED BY BLOOMSBURY IN 2013.

CAFÉ BAR

OPEN EVERY DAY FROM 9.30AM - 5PM

A welcoming and light filled space, The Lyric Café Bar is perfect for informal meetings, catching up with friends, or just some quiet time to yourself.

SOUP, SANDWICHES AND PASTAS SERVED 11.30AM - 2.30PM

PRE SHOW TASTING PLATTERS SERVED 6PM - 7.30PM

SUNDAY BRUNCH SERVED 10AM TO 2PM

ST VALENTINE’S DAY PLATTERS

FRI 14 FEB

Enjoy a romantic evening with your partner in the relaxed surround of our Café Bar overlooking the River Lagan. Share a delicious Antipasto or Cheese platter with a bottle of bubbly and finish with tea/coffee and petit fours for just £24 per couple.

MOTHER’S DAY BUBBLY BRUNCH

SUN 30 MAR

Take some time out with your mother and treat her to a delicious brunch at the Lyric. Our mouthwatering menu has a range of delicious items including Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and French Toast with Maple Syrup. For some bubbly fun why not add a bottle of Prosecco? FREE

dIFFERENT laNgUagES

Brian Friel has long been acclaimed for his mellifluent mastery of language. The monologues comprising Molly Sweeney and Faith Healer, Michael’s closing coda to Lughnasa, not to mention Translations’ eloquent exchanges are some of the most musical and memorable in modern drama. However, the lyrical, literary qualities of Friel’s drama should not distract us from appreciating his equal mastery of stage language in its physical and visual form, as is playfully manifest here in Gar Public and Private’s double act.

Moreover, in spite of the loquaciousness of so many of his characters, meaningful communication in Friel is often only achieved outside of language; in music, movement and memory: the Dionysian dancing of those lonely Glenties’ women in Lughnasa, the strains of Chopin sonatas in Aristocrats, the sensuous incantation of strange placenames with which Maire and Yolland’s seduce one another in Translations

And so it is, too, in Philadelphia. “To hell with all strong silent men” inveighs Gar, enraged by his father’s failure to communicate. But Screwballs’ silence doesn’t signify indifference or a lack of love, for Madge obliquely reveals SB’s concealed inner grief, “It must have been daybreak when he got to sleep last night. I could hear his bed creaking.” Later, when she berates the bewildered SB for carrying on as normal; reading his paper after dinner as per his usual routine on Gar’s last evening at home, she storms off in a distraught state, leaving the seemingly callous Screwballs alone onstage where he, and then we, slowly realise that the paper he’s supposedly been reading, is upside down. Such little gestures speak volumes.

Brian Friel turned 85 last month and Philadelphia, Here I Come! is now half a century young - and so it’s only fitting that with this fiftieth anniversary production, the Lyric Theatre pays tribute to both these achievements in a double bill with Molly Sweeney, as an honorific gesture to our greatest playwright: someone whose work, in Yeats’ words, will long continue to “engross the past and dominate memory”.

FRIEL ON STAgE AT ThE LYRIC

dR MaRk PHElaN QUEEN’S UNIvERSITY BELFAST DRAMA DEPARTMENT AND LYRIC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

1. The Home Place (2009), 2. Crystal and Fox (1980), 3. The Gentle Island (1972), 4. Wonderful Tennessee (2000)

PHIladElPHIa, HERE I coME!

By BRIaN FRIEl

DIRECTED BY ANDREW FLYNN

THURSday 6 FEBRUaRy – SaTURday 8 MaRcH 2014

PREVIEWS: SUNday 2, TUESday 4 & WEdNESday 5 FEBRUaRy

cREdITS

cREaTIVE TEaM

DIRECTOR aNdREW FlyNN

SET DESIgNER oWEN MaccÁRTHaIgH

COSTUME DESIgNER PaT MUSgRaVE

LIghTINg DESIgNER cIaRaN BagNall

SOUND DESIgNER caRl kENNEdy

caST (IN oRdER oF aPPEaRaNcE)

MADgE STElla MccUSkER

gARETh O’DONNELL PUBLIC PETER cooNaN

gARETh O’DONNELL PRIvATE gaVIN dREa

SB O’DONNELL dES McalEER

KATE DOOgAN SUSaN daVEy

SENATOR DOOgAN/BEN BURTON MaRTy MagUIRE

MASTER BOYLE ENda oaTES

LIZZY SWEENEY MaRIoN o dWyER

CON SWEENEY/CANON MICK O’BYRNE NIall cUSack

NED dERMoTT HIckSoN

TOM JaMES MURPHy

JOE TERENcE kEElEy

PRodUcTIoN TEaM

PRODUCTION & TEChNICAL MANAgER kEITH gINTy

TEChNICIAN MIcHaEl HaRPUR

COMPANY STAgE MANAgER kaTE MIllER

DEPUTY STAgE MANAgER TRacEy lINdSay

ASSISTANT STAgE MANAgER STEPHEN dIX

WARDROBE ASSISTANTS ERIN cHaRTÉRIS

MadElEINE oWENS

MAKE UP claIRE dEMPSEy

hAIR AND WIgS SaNdRa ByRNE

SCENIC ARTIST gER SWEENEy

SET BUILDERS oWEN MaccÁRTHaIgH

BRIaN MoRoNEy

THE lyRIc THEaTRE WoUld lIkE To THaNk

SéAMAS MacANNAIDh

CAT RICE

McDOWELL + SERvICE DENTAL LABORATORY LTD

NIChOLAS MOSSE POTTERY, KILKENNY

SARAh SPEARS

lyRIcThEATRE

PrinciPal Funder

CREATIvE TEAM BIogRaPHIES

BRIaN FRIEl PLAYWRIghT

Brian Friel was born in Omagh, County Tyrone and now lives in Donegal.

In 2005 The Home Place opened at The Gate Theatre in Dublin and subsequently transferred to the Comedy Theatre in London. In the same year Aristocrats opened under the direction of Tom Cairns at the National Theatre in London. In 2006 Ralph Fiennes starred in Faith Healer at the Gate Theatre in Dublin; the show transferred to Broadway and was nominated for a Tony for Best Revival. Most recently his new version of Hedda Gabler opened at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.

His plays include: The Enemy Within (1962); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964); The Loves of Cass McGuire (1966); Lovers (1967); Crystal and Fox (1968); The Mundy Scheme (1969); The Gentle Island (1971); The Freedom of the City (1973); Volunteers (1975); Living QuaRTÉrs (1977); Faith Healer (1979); Three Sisters (after Chekhov - 1981); Father and Sons (after Turgenev - 1987); Making History (1988); Dancing at Lughnasa (1990); The London Vertigo (after Macklin -1991); Wonderful Tennessee (1993); Molly Sweeney (1994); Give Me Your Answer, Do! (1997); Uncle Vanya (after Chekhov -1998); The Bear (2002); Afterplay (2002); Performances (2003); The Home Place (2005).

Brian Friel has won many awards and accolades for his work, including a Tony Award for Dancing at Lughnasa. He is an honorary member of both the Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1999 Brian was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Irish Times.

aNdREW FlyNN DIRECTOR

Andrew began his career in Druid Theatre Galway where he worked for three years. He is currently the Artistic Director of Decadent Theatre and the Director of Theatre with Galway Arts Centre and he also works as a freelance Theatre director.

Lyric Theatre credits include: Pumpgirl and Dockers.

Recent directing credits include: The Cavalcaders (Decadent Theatre/ NOMAD); Eden; Port Authority, Doubt (Decadent Theatre); A Skull in Connemara, Faith Healer (Townhall Galway); Juno And The Paycock (A.R.T Northern Ireland/Cork Opera House); Translations (Ouroborous Theatre Company); Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Decadent/ LyricTheatre, Belfast); Learning to Love Doreen Nolan, Desert Places (Druid Theatre - World Premiere-Druid debuts); The Lieutenant Of Inishmore (Irish Premiere, Cork Opera House/Millennium Theatre Derry/Townhall Theatre Galway); Translations; The Weir (Townhall Galway); Janet’s Table (World Premiere Townhall Galway); Tejas Verdes (Irish Premiere Cuirt International Festival of Literature); Talking to Terrorists (Irish Premiere Cuirt International Festival of Literature For Decadent Theatre); Blackbird; Character (World Premiere); Via Dolorosa, This Lime Tree Bower, Lovers, Wild Harvest, At The Black Pigs Dyke, The Good Thief, Here We Are Again Still (World Premiere); Country Music, The Ugly One, Autobahn, Portia Coughlan, Our Country’s Good, Philadelphia, Here I Come!; Crestfall, The Crucible (Galway Arts Centre).

The touring production of A Skull In Connemara which Andrew has directed will feature on the Danske Bank Stage in March 2014.

oWEN MaccÁRTHaIgH SET DESIgNER

Owen is a Galway-based set designer and builder of his own stage sets.

He was winner of an Irish Times Theatre Award in 2008 for Arts

Northern Ireland’s production of Juno and The Paycock. He has recently been nominated for this years awards for his set design for Decadent Theatre Company’s production of A Skull in Connemara

A Skull in Connemara is currently on tour and will be playing the Lyric in March 2014 on the Danske Bank Stage.

cIaRaN BagNall LIghTINg DESIgNER

Ciaran is from Newry and currently lives in Carrickfergus. He Trained at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Lyric Theatre credits include lighting and set design for White Star of the North, and lighting design for The Little Prince and Pumpgirl.

Other theatre credits include lighting and set design for The Conquest of Happiness (Prime Cut Productions, Belfast & East West Centre, Sarajevo, European Tour); I am my own Wife (MAC, Belfast); Man in the Moon, The Sweety Bottle (Brassneck Theatre, Belfast); Shoot the Crow (Grand Opera House, Belfast); Snookered (Bush Theatre, London); Digging for Fire (Rough Magic, Project Arts Centre, Dublin); Piaf, The Glass Menagerie, Of Mice and Men, Habeas Corpus, Secret Thoughts, Oleanna (Octagon Theatre, Bolton) and lighting design for Wanted! Robin Hood (Lowry Theatre, Manchester); Robin Hood, Macbeth, Wizard of Oz, Sweeney Todd, Romeo & Juliet, East is East (Octagon Theatre, Bolton); Cooking with Elvis (Derby Theatre); Home (The Shed, National Theatre, London); Much Ado about Nothing (RSC, Stratford & London West End).

Recent awards:

2013 Nominated Best Design Manchester Theatre Awards;

2012 Nominated Best Design Manchester Theatre Awards;

2011 Nominated Best Lighting Design Irish Times Theatre Awards and

2009 Best Design Manchester MEN Theatre Awards.

caRl kENNEdy SOUND DESIgNER

Theatre work includes The Cavalcaders (NOMAD Theatre Network); The Critic (Rough Magic); Eden , Port Authority (Decadent Theatre Company); ThiRTÉen and Dublin Tenement

Experience: Living the Lockout (ANU); Deep (Cork Midsummer Festival); Bug (Broken Crow); King Lear, Alice in Funderland, No Romance, Only an Apple, The Comedy of Errors and Assistant Sound Designer on The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Abbey Theatre); A Skull in Connemara, Doubt - Irish Times Theatre Awards nomination for Best Sound Design 2012 and Faith Healer (Town Hall Theatre Galway/Decadent Theatre Co.); The House That Jack Filled, A Man In Half (Theatre Lovett); The Fall (Ella Clarke); The Seafarer (NOMAD Theatre Network); Plaza Suite and sound engineering and design for Peer Gynt - Irish Times Theatre Awards nomination for Best Sound Design 2011 (Rough Magic with music by Tarab); The Goddess of Liberty, Little Gem, Meltdown, Unravelling the Ribbon (Gúna Nua); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Phaedra’s Love (Loose Canon); Toxic (GSA Graduation Play at Project Arts Centre); The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly, The Giant Blue Hand (The Ark/ Theatre Lovett); Celebrity (Peer To Peer); Ellamenope Jones, Everybody Loves Sylvia (Randolf SD); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Gaiety Theatre); Marathon (Hurricane Theatre Company); Doughnuts, Light Signals, Skin and Blister (TEAM); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Making Strange); Kaleidoscope,The Baths, Still Life Still, Black Milk, Scarborough; Right Here Right Now (Prime Cut); All Over Town (Calipo); The Infant (Mirari Productions); End of the Line (Cork Midsummer Festival); Love’s Labours Lost (Samuel Beckett Theatre); Howie the Rookie (Granary Theatre, Cork); They Never Froze Walt Disney (Theatre Makers); The Shawl (Bewley’s Café Theatre) and Sound Designer for Macbeth (Siren Productions). Music and sound design for Youth Theatre includes Shay Mouse, Pineapple, Frank Pig Says Hello, Breathing Corpses (Galway Youth Theatre); The Seagull (National Youth Theatre at the Peacock); At the Black Pig’s Dyke, The Crucible (County Sligo Youth Theatre); Beatstreet (Action Performing in the City in Konstanz, Germany); Myrtlehill Terrace, Ideal Homes Show, Debutantes’ Cabaret (Activate Youth Theatre); and One Last White Horse, codesigned with Ian Kehoe (Galway Youth Theatre).

CAST BIogRaPHIES

PETER cooNaN gARETh O’DONNELL PUBLIC

NIall

cUSack

CON SWEENEY/CANON MICK O’BYRNE

SUSaN daVEy KATE DOOgAN

Peter was born and lives in Dublin and trained at the Anne Kavanagh Theatre School and University College Dublin. This is his first time performing at the Lyric. He most recently performed in The Corn Exchange’s production of Desire Under The Elms which was part of the 2013 Dublin Theatre Festival.

Recent television credits include An Crisis Eile (TG4) and the BBC miniseries Quirke (based on the Benjamin Black books), in which he plays the role of Brendan Boyle. However, Peter is best known for his role as Fran in RTÉ’s acclaimed drama series Love/Hate, for which he won an IFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Drama. He will return to our screens in the same role later this year.

Most recent film credits include Get Up And Go and Life’s A Breeze (Fastnet Films); What Richard Did (Element Pictures); the short film Doghouse (Tilted Pictures); King of the Travellers and Stalker, which came runner up for the audience awards in the Galway Film Fleadh.

Niall was born in Belfast and educated at Inst and Balliol College, Oxford. He first appeared at the Lyric in Derryvolgie Avenue in 1962 in A Month in the Country. Niall appeared in 2011 in the Lyric’s two opening plays The Crucible and Dockers

Other Lyric Theatre credits include: Playboy of the Western World, The Importance of Being Earnest, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Noises Off; Round the Big Clock, The Tempest, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Volunteers, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Private Picture Show, The Taming of the Shrew, A Life, Brothers of the Brush, The Crucible, Pygmalion, Translations; All Souls’ Night, The Snowman and Getting the Picture

He learned a lot through working with two fine (totally dissimilar) directors, Roy Heayberd and Michael Poynor at the Belfast Civic Arts Theatre and the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine. He also learned a lot about the crafty, unsung, indispensable art of Stage Management through working with Valerie Bainbridge and Mo McAuley. He is profoundly grateful to all his teachers. It was a special privilege to work at the Lyric with Louis Rolston, Joe McPartland and John Hewitt.

He has many years’ experience working in radio, TV and film with the BBC, RTÉ, TG4 and other companies, both in English and Irish.

Susan is from Belfast and trained in ballet before studying at the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin. She most recently performed in Lifeboat and Babble both for Replay Theatre Company on tour across the island of Ireland.

Lyric Theatre credits include: The Playboy of the Western World playing the role of Sara Tansey.

Other theatre credits include: Marianne Dreams (Replay Theatre Company), A Christmas Carol (Wireless Mystery Theatre), Operation Blitzed (Big Telly), A Pantomime Horse (Agent 160 Theatre), Of Fallen Sock and Fear (Accidental Theatre Company) and TIE Work for Tinderbox Theatre Company.

Film and TV credits include: Fr. Brendan Smyth: Betrayal Of Trust (BBC), A Belfast Story (independent American feature), Mime, The Lighthouse Keepers (NI Screen/Stirling Productions). Susan has also recorded voiceovers for the BBC and the role of ‘Eveline’ for an audio tour of Dubliners (Wonderland Theatre Company). She also sings as part of a 1940’s style vocal trio for Wireless Mystery Theatre.

Gavin is from Dublin and trained at University College Dublin. This is his first time performing at the Lyric.

Other theatre includes; A Whistle in the Dark, Famine (Druid Theatre Co. International Tour 2012); Alice in Wonderland (Upstart); La Corbiére (Devise+Conquer); Hamlet, King Lear, and Speed-the-Plow (UCD Dramsoc).

Film and television work includes; Love/ Hate (Octagon Films/RTÉ); What Richard Did (Element Pictures); Jack Taylor (Magma Films/TV3); Beirt Le Cheile (Spiral Pictures).

Radio plays include; Friday Night is Music Night: The Commitments (BBC Radio 2); The Van and The Snapper (BBC Radio 4).

Gavin was nominated in 2012 for Best Supporting Actor at the Irish Times Theatre Awards for his portrayal of Des in A Whistle in the Dark.

Gavin can next be seen at the Gaeity Theatre in Paul Howard’s Breaking Dad, which will be directed by Jimmy Fay.

A native of County Derry, Dermott is also a keen writer and musician. Dermott graduated from Drama at Queen’s University Belfast in 2009, after which he joined the Lyric’s Drama Studio, before attending the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. He has been working professionally on stage and screen since 2010.

Dermott has previously appeared at the Lyric Theatre in Translations, which was directed by Adrian Dunbar.

Recent theatre credits include: The Conquest of Happiness (Prime Cut Productions); Farmer and the Fisherman (11:18 Theatre Company); Marianne Dreams (Replay Theatre Company); Nuala McKeever’s Carol’s Christmas (Theatre at The Mill) and Joseph Tumelty’s All Soul’s Night (Centre Stage).

TV and film credits include: Great Meadow’s PG Wodehouse biopic An Innocent Abroad, 6 Degrees (BBC); Colin Bateman drama Scúp, and Video Hacker comedy series The Clandestine

Terence trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Theatre credits include: This Is My Family (Sheffield Crucible); 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The MAC, Belfast); Titanic Boys (Grand Opera House Belfast/Cork Opera House); Othello (Irish Tour); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic); Dancing Shoes (Group Theatre, Belfast).

Television, film and radio credits include: Titanic: Blood and Steel (mini series); Eastenders; Heads away, just say; 71; Fishbowl; Puckoon; God man yer’ Da! (BBC Radio Drama).

Terence also has extensive voiceover experience.

gaVIN dREa gARETh O’DONNELL PRIvATE

dERMoTT HIckSoN NED

TERENcE kEElEy JOE

CAST BIogRaPHIES

MaRTy MagUIRE SENATOR DOOgAN/BEN BURTON

dES McalEER SB O’DONNELL

STElla MccUSkER

Belfast actor Marty Maguire has split careers between Ireland and 20 years in Los Angeles. His performance in Marie Jones’ A Night in November earned him a Best Actor award at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival followed by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Best Actor in 2004.

Lyric Theatre credits include: Weddins’, Weeins’ & Wakes, Mixed Marriage; Dockers; Da, Wuthering Heights and the Irish premiere of Orphans.

Recent theatre credits include: From the Shipyard to the Somme (Partisan Productions); The Sweety Bottle (Irish Tour); The Field (The Bull McCabe at the Irish Rep NY); Shoot The Crow (Socrates, Irish Tour); the world premiere of Marie Jones’ Rockdoves (Irish Arts Centre NY); The Chronicles of Long Kesh (Best Ensemble Winner 2009 Edinburgh Festival); Dancing Shoes; The George Best Story (Opera House and UK tour) and Stormont; The Odd Couple (Theatre at the Mill); The Blind Fiddler (Opera House, Edinburgh); On Eagle’s Wing (Odyssey, Belfast); Sleeping Beauty (Armagh).

TV & Film credits include: Pulling Moves; The Grasscutter; St Patrick’s Day; Orphan; Wild Card; Fragments and recent Irish thriller, No Saints For Sinners

Des is from Belfast and previous Lyric Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV and The Tempest

Other theatre credits: Angels In America, The Crucible, MacBeth (Abbey Theatre); The Cure at Troy (Field Day Theatre Company); Fanshen (National Theatre); The Rivals, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, The Homecoming (The Royal Shakespeare Company); The Price (Apollo London); The Weir (Duke of Yorks); Molly Sweeney (The Curve Leicester); War and Peace (Shared Experience); Twelfth Night (English Touring Company); Beside Herself (Royal Court); Macbeth (Cheek By Jowl) and Dial M For Murder (Theatre Royal Brighton).

TV and film credits include: Monseignor Reynard & Rebus (ITV); Eureka Street, The Wexford Trilogy, Picking up the Pieces, Trainer , Four Days in July (BBC) and Field of Blood (STV); Angela’s Ashes (Paramount); Hidden Agenda (Hemdale) and Butterfly Kiss (British Screen Productions).

Stella has a long association with the Lyric Theatre where she made her debut as Kate Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer. She also performed in The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards Best Actress 2010); The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Good Natured Man, Pygmalion, The Memory of Water, Desert Lullaby and Ibsen’s Ghosts, which also played at the National Theatre Oslo and Uncle Vanya

Other theatre credits include: No Romance, Three Sisters, Alice Trilogy, Portia Coughlan, Communion, Treehouses, Philadelphia, Here I Come!; The Mai (Abbey Theatre); The House of Bernarda Alba (Gate Theatre); Endgame (Waterfront Studio); At the Black Pig’s Dyke, The Loves of Cass McGuire, The Country Boy (Druid); Donny Boy, The Beggar’s Opera, Electra (Manchester Royal Exchange); Medea, Our Father (Almeida Theatre); Pygmies in the Ruins, Woman and Scarecrow (Royal Court); Roberto Zucco, Riders To The Sea (Royal Shakespeare Company); Factory Girls (Millennium Forum).

Film and TV credits include: Jack Taylor, Thief In The Night, Rule of Thumb, Roadkill, Pure Mule, Five Minutes of Heaven, On Home Ground, The Last Furlong, Holy Cross, Whatever Love Means, Errors and Omissions, So You Think You’ve Got Troubles, Foreign Bodies, Betrayal, This Is The Sea, Monkey’s Blood, Dear Sarah (Jacobs Award for Best Actress); Give My Head Peace, I Fought The Law, Making The Cut, Trivia; Sanctuary, Amber (RTÉ), Standby, Six Degrees (BBC) and Shine On (RTÉ).

ENda oaTES MASTER BOYLE

A native of Donaghmore County Tyrone, James went to Dublin to study at the Gaiety School of Acting – The National Theatre School of Ireland. Formerly he was a member of the Dungannon Footlights, appearing in The Drugs Don’t Work in the title role of Cedric. James was awarded the Gaiety Theatre Bursary Award in 2010 and while at the Gaiety School he developed a one man performance, Disappeared, under the direction of Jimmy Fay and staged it as part of the Manifesto Showcase in the Complex, Smithfield.

Theatre credits include: Blood Wedding; Bee Loud Glade (Project Arts Centre); Toxic by Michelle Read (Project Arts Centre); The Winter’s Tale (Corcadorca Theatre Company, directed by Pat Kiernan at the Cork Opera House) and Roddy Doyle’s translation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector (directed by Jimmy Fay at the Abbey Theatre); A Woman of No Importance (The Gate Theatre, directed by Patrick Mason); The Last Summer (The Gate Theatre, directed by Toby Frow, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival in late 2012).

James recently appeared in The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle directed by Dan Herd in New York at the 59E59 Theatre as part of the 1st Irish Festival 2013.

Recent theatre includes: Curse of The Starving Class (Abbey Theatre); The Merchant of Venice (Second Age Theatre Company); Further Than The Furtherest Thing (Hatch Theatre Productions) and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Gaiety Theatre).

Other theatre includes: The Corsican Brothers, Big Maggie, Colours, Devil’s Disciple, St. Joan, En Suite (Abbey Theatre); Juno and the Paycock (Abbey Theatre and New York); Jaques Brel is Alive And Well (Noel Pearson Productions, Gate Theatre); Studs; Buddleia, (Passion Machine in Project Arts Centre and The Donmar Warehouse); The Field (Gaiety Theatre); Uncle Vanya (Field Day); The Plough and the Stars (Young Vic); The Tempest (Corcadorca); Ha’penny Bridge (Point Theatre); True Believers (Tricycle, Irish Tour); Pilgrims; The Plains of Enna and Whereabouts (Fishamble Theatre Company).

Enda plays Pete Ferguson in the long running TV Series Fair City (RTÉ).

Other television and film credits include: Glenroe; Upwardly Mobile (RTÉ); Trí Scéal (TG4); A Man of No Importance, Ordinary Decent Criminal (Littlebird); Ballykissangel (BBC); Moone Boy (Sky 1); Raw (RTÉ); Stardust (Media Films); Ever Lasting Piece (Dreamworks); Eden (Samson Films); Val Falvey and Superhero (Grand Pictures).

Marion is from Dublin and has previously appeared in many productions of Friel’s plays, including Dancing at Lughnasa (Abbey Theatre, National and Australian tours); Molly Sweeney (Bristol Old Vic) and the world premiere of Wonderful Tennessee (Abbey Theatre, and Broadway).

Recent theatre includes: The Cavalcaders (Decadent/Nomad Irish tour); A Streetcar Named Desire (Gate Theatre) and PAYBACK! which Marion cowrote with Maria McDermottroe for Show in a Bag at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2012.

Other theatre includes: A Woman of No Importance, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Speckled People,The Deep Blue Sea, Twelfth Night, Stella by Starlight, Fathers & Sons, A Tale of Two Cities, Our Country’s Good, An Ideal Husband, Pride & Prejudice, The Threepenny Opera, Blithe Spirit (Gate Theatre); Bookworms, The Government Inspector, The Rivals, The Crucible, All my Sons, The School for Scandal, The Plough and the Stars, Portia Coughlan, Big Love, You Can’t Take it With You, The Silver Tassie, Kevin’s Bed (Abbey Theatre); Poor Beast in the Rain, Lovers’ Meeting, The Donahue Sisters, The Loves of Cass Maguire, The Silver Tassie (Druid).

Television, film and radio credits: Agnes Browne, Poirot ‘Sad Cypress’, Ballykissangel, Ondine, Love, Rosie, Irish Pictorial Weekly, The Savage Eye, Rebel Heart, The Clinic, Casualty, Hollyoaks, Doctors. Marion was a member of the RTÉ players for four years and has played in many radio productions for BBC Radio 4.

Marion is delighted to make her Lyric Theatre debut, especially in a Brian Friel play.

MADgE

JaMES MURPHy TOM

MaRIoN o dWyER LIZZY SWEENEY

WARDROBE AND PROP HIRE

THE LYRIC HAS AN EXTENSIVE RANGE OF COSTUMES AND PROPS, BOTH CONTEMPORARY AND PERIOD, AVAILABLE FOR HIRE BY OUTSIDE COMPANIES.

FOR WARDROBE HIRE, E-MAIL WARDROBE@LYRICTHEATRE.CO.UK

FOR PROP HIRE, E-MAIL STAGEMANAGER@LYRICTHEATRE.CO.UK

THEATRE TOURS

TAKE A BACKSTAGE TOUR OF THE NEW THEATRE AND GET A GLIMPSE OF WHAT GOES ON BEHIND-THE-SCENES IN NORTHERN IRELAND’S ONLY FULL-TIME PRODUCING THEATRE.

CHECK TOUR SHEDULE AND BOOK ONLINE AT WWW.LYRICTHEATRE.CO.UK OR PHONE (028) 9038 1081

55 dayS By HoWaRd BENToN DIRECTED BY

PhILIP CRAWFORD

cREaTIVE lEaRNINg

Getting our audiences involved is what Creative Learning is all about – participation! In days gone by, people were content to come to the theatre and passively watch and listen to actors perform. Nowadays, we want to offer you the chance to become more actively engaged in what we’re doing. So, alongside our productions there are events and activities designed to enhance your enjoyment of the work on stage.

To accompany our run of Philadelphia, Here I Come! there is a comprehensive on-line Resource Pack at www.lyrictheatre.co.uk/philadelphia. We hope teachers and pupils will find it helps them bring the script to life, but if you’ve enjoyed the show, have a look yourself: there are interviews with the Director, insightful views on the text and lots of information on many aspects of the production.

Our Exploring the Text workshops run for 4 weeks and offer participants the chance to work with one of our facilitators – reading scenes from the play, discussing the writer and the way the piece is structured; even getting up on your feet and performing some of the dialogue if you’re feeling brave! In the final session, the group go to see the play and then exchange critiques over a drink in the bar afterwards. Courses are advertised on our website. Schools that have made group bookings for Philadelphia, Here I Come! can avail of a free Drama

IT IS DECEMBER 1648. ThE ARMY hAS OCCUPIED LONDON PARLIAMENT vOTES NOT TO PUT ThE IMPRISONED KINg ON TRIAL, SO ThE ARMY MOvES AgAINST WESTMINSTER IN ThE FIRST AND ONLY MILITARY COUP IN ENgLISh hISTORY WhAT FOLLOWS OvER ThE NExT FIFTY-FIvE DAYS, AS CROMWELL SEEKS TO COMPROMISE WITh A KINg WhO WILL DO NO SUCh ThINg, IS NOThINg LESS ThAN ThE FORgINg OF A NEW NATION, AN ENTIRELY NEW WORLD

Box oFFice / 028 9038 1081

Book online / www.lyrictheatre.co.uk

workshop. Our team of facilitators arrive in the classroom and deliver 90 minutes of practical activities before or after students have been to see the show. Contact leahwright@lyrictheatre.co.uk if you’d like more information.

The Creative Learning department has just launched a new initiative to work more closely with teachers in Northern Ireland. We are ambitiously aiming to invite all Heads of Drama across the country to join us for a performance and a pre-show drink at the Lyric so we can explore ways of working more effectively together. Your invitation will be in the post!

We look forward to working with you.

PhiliP crawFord CREATIvE LEARNINg COORDINATOR

“COME ON, BUCKO; IT’S YOUR PLACE TO MAKE ThE MOvE...” gaR PRIVaTE

“WE ARE NOT JUST TRYINg A TYRANT, WE ARE INvENTINg A COUNTRY…TRYINg TO ThINK ThOUghTS NEvER ThOUghT BEFORE!”

olIVER cRoMWEll

a lyRIc dRaMa STUdIo PRODUCTION

HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?

BY ALAN STANFORD ADAPTED FROM THE NOVEL BY JENNIFER JOHNSTON

WED 30 APR – SAT 24 MAY 2014

PREVIEWS: SUN 27 2.30PM, TUES 29 7.45PM

Box Office / 028 9038 1081

Book Online / www.lyrictheatre.co.uk

lyRIc SPoNSoRS

PRINcIPal FUNdER

MaIN STagE SPoNSoR gRaNT FUNdEd By

lyRIc THEaTRE

PaTRoN l aM NEESoN oBE

TRUSTEES

BY GARY MITCHELL

BY DAVID IRELAND

THE lyRIc IS alSo gENERoUSly SUPPoRTÉd By:

IN-kINd SPoNSoRS

coRPoRaTE STaRS

WED 7 – SAT 24 MAY 2014

PREVIEWS: SUN 4 2.30PM & TUES 6 MAY 8PM

Box Office / 028 9038 1081

Book Online / www.lyrictheatre.co.uk

THURS 12 JUN – SAT 5 JUL 2014

PREVIEWS: SUN 8 2.30PM, TUES 10 & WED 11 7.45PM

Box Office / 028 9038 1081

Book Online / www.lyrictheatre.co.uk

MaRk caRRUTHERS oBE cHaIRMaN, SId McdoWEll cBE VIcE cHaIRMaN, PHIlIP cHEEVERS, STEPHEN doUdS, NIcky dUNN, HENRy

ElVIN, PaTRIcIa McBRIdE, dR MaRk PHElaN, SIR BRUcE RoBINSoN

SENIoR MaNagER

ChIEF ExECUTIvE cIaRÁN McaUlEy

aRTISTIc

CREATIvE LEARNINg CO-ORDINATOR PHIlIP cRaWFoRd

CREATIvE LEARNINg ASSISTANT lEaH WRIgHT

CREATIvE LEARNINg INTERN cHRIS gRaNT

FINaNcE & adMINISTRaTIoN

ADMINISTRATION MANAgER claRE gaUlT

ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT caT RIcE

FINANCE MANAgER dEIRdRE FERgUSoN

FINANCE ASSISTANT MIcHEÁl MEEgaN

MaRkETINg & coMMUNIcaTIoNS

MARKETINg & COMMUNICATIONS MANAgER loRRaINE McgoRaN

MARKETINg OFFICER gREg FoX

PRESS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER aNNE MaddEN

DIgITAL MEDIA INTERN EVaN aRMSTRoNg

MARKETINg INTERN claIRE caSSIdy

PRodUcTIoN & TEcHNIcal SERVIcES

PRODUCTION /TEChNICAL MANAgER kEITH gINTy

COMPANY STAgE MANAgER kaTE MIllER

DEPUTY STAgE MANAgERS TRacEy lINdSay aIMEE yaTES

ASSISTANT STAgE MANAgERS loUISE BRyaNS

STEPHEN dIX

TEChNICIANS MIcHaEl HaRPUR

SEaN PaUl o’RaWE hOUSEKEEPINg aNTHoNy McSTRaVIck (SUPERVISoR)

dEBBIE dUFF

SaMaNTHa WalkER

WARDROBE SUPERvISOR PaT MUSgRaVE

WARDROBE ASSISTANT ERIN cHaRTÉRIS

cUSToMER SERVIcES

CUSTOMER SERvICES MANAgER cIaRa MccaNN

CAFé BAR MANAgER MaRIoN MIllaR

KITChEN ASSISTANT colIN McHUgH BOx OFFICE SUPERvISOR EMIly WHITE FRONT OF hOUSE SUPERvISORS EMMa daVIdSoN cIaRÁN NoadE

BoX oFFIcE

lESlEy aNN coRkEN J ll cUNNINgHaM caTHal HENRy BRIdgET INNES, HaNNaH kElly, PaUl MccaFFREy colM McaTEER, HollIE McNIEcE, BERNadETTE oWENS, RacHEllE dE SIlVa RIcHaRd SMITH caFÉ BaR

SoPHIE dUFFIN, Ella gRIFFIN, PETER HackETT, laURa HaMIll, MaRINa HaMPToN, TERESa HIll, aaRoN HUgHES, gERaRd kElly colIN McHUgH, SaRaH MUlgREW, cIaRÁN NoadE, gERaldINE REyNoldS, ToM SaUNdERS

HoSTS

PaMEla aRMSTRoNg, caRla BRySoN, EllISoN cRaIg daRREN FRaNklIN, EMMa goRNall, adElE gRIBBoN, Ella gRIFFIN, PETER HackETT, laURa HaMIll MaRINa HaMPToN, TERESa HIll, aaRoN HUgHES, BRIdgET INNES, gERaRd kElly PaTRIcIa McgREEVy MaRy McMaNUS, caTHERINE MooRE, SaRaH MUlgREW, HollIE McNEIcE, BoBBI RaI PURdy, gERaldINE REyNoldS, dENNIS TyREll lESlEy WIlSoN

CAN’T FORGET ABOUT YOU