KING LEAR to open at the Wexford Opera House

Newry born Gerard Murphy returns to the Irish Stage in the title role of King Lear.

Having spent most of his professional career in the UK or further afield in the US, it is a great honour that Gerard Murphy returns to Ireland to Second Age to play King Lear. Gerard, a long time associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare, has had the opportunity to play some of Shakespeares greatest leading roles including Macbeth, Anthony in Anthony and Cleopatra, Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar to name but a few, but this will be his first time to play KING LEAR.

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Irish Mail on Sunday review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Michael Moffat of the Irish Mail on Sunday also reviewed Philadelphia, Here I Come! Giving the review 4 stars and describing the production as "excellent", this is one in a long series of extremely positive reviews of the Production.

Sparkling take on Friel’s split-personality story
Philadelphia Here I Come!
On tour (see below) ****

IF BRIAN FRIEL'S earliest big success had been written as a film script, it would surely have had a sequel to follow the adventures in Philadelphia of the gormless young failure from Ballybeg. He is a failed student a failure in love, he's no great shakes as a businessman, yet he deludes himself with daydreams about his future in the US as a red-hot womaniser and tycoon. His father, SB O'Donnell, has at least built up a decent business and is a county councillor, yet SB is the villain of the play.

I have often thought it would be interesting to look into the mind of SB contemplating the incompetence of his big eejit of a son, in the same way that we get a look into Gar's mind.
In this excellent production, Sean Stewart as Gar Public and Marty Rea as Gar Private, get across the full measure of pathos and manic humour in the character, especially in the painful scene with Kathy and that deeply moving scene in which Gar and his father begin to communicate tentatively, but which ends as Gar's childhood boating memory is shattered.

The strong cast includes Conan Sweeney as the archetypal hard-man Ned, and Walter McMonagle as a not unsympathetic SB. Joan Sheehy is suitably creepy as Lizzy Sweeney but Enda Oates doesn't capture the seedy arrogance, and self-delusion of Master Boyle, who is so casually dismissive of Gar's limited abilities. The prayerful mutterings in the rosary scene distracted from Gar's fantasising but director Alan Stanford generally orches­trates everything at a fine pace and has bravely allowed dra­matic silences, which can be dangerous when playing to school audiences, although the only intrusive noise I heard was from a teacher's mobile.

The fine set by Eileen Diss is typical of the attention to detail that goes into these Second Age productions. •
Touring:
Everyman, Cork,Nov. 20-23:
Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire Nov 29 - Dec 1

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Caitríona Ní Mhurchú to play Lady Macbeth

Second Age is delighted that Caitríona Ní Mhurchú will reprieve her role as Lady Macbeth. Caitríona has worked with Second Age a number of times now, most recently in the 2006 production of Macbeth. A graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting, Caitríona has worked extensively in theatre and television. Her appearances at the Abbey and Peacock include Beauty in a Broken Place, Ariel, and Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire and she has also worked with Alan Stanford at the Gate Theatre on a number of occassions, most recently in The Constant Wife.
Her television experience is extensive that includes roles in Proof and Fair City for RTE, and Ballykissangel for the BBC.
Caitríona is a fluent Irish speaker and has worked extensively through Irish when she has written, directed and voiced cartoons for TG4, including Spongebob Squarepants, The Muppet Show and Scooby Doo. Caitríona's first novel for young people Ó Lúibíní Lú has just been published by Cló Iar-Chonnachta.

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David Shannon to play title role in Macbeth 2008

Second Age is thrilled to announce that David Shannon, who delighted both audience and critics with his breathtaking performance as Sweeney Todd at the Gate Theatre, is set to play the title role in Macbeth.

His Sweeney Todd was rapturously received by both Dublin Audiences and the critics who described the "phenomenal performances by David Shannon......Shannon's coiled intensity, looming physical presence and vocal richness" (The Guardian) "David Shannon makes a marvellously brooding Sweeney" (Sunday Independent) ,"David Shannon, ... makes a compellingly intense and beautifully voiced Todd"(The Irish Times). The verdict was unanimous, that Shannon has an outstanding talented with an immense presence. Whilst it may have been his performance in Sweeney Todd that brought David to the attention of Dublin audiences, David has long been playing to considerable critical acclaim on the international stage. He has played Chris in Miss Saigon UK tour (Mayflower, Southampton, Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Hippodrome); Alternate Chris in Miss Saigon UK tour (Edinburgh Playhouse, Point Theatre Dublin); and has played in numerous other Musical Theatre greats including Pimp/Claquesous and understudy Enjolras in Les Miserables (Point Theatre, Dublin and Edinburgh Playhouse)and the star role in one of West Ends most celebrated musicals The Phantom of the Opera

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David will start rehearsing Macbeth in late December, the show will open at An Grianán Letterkenny before touring to the TownHall Galway, Everyman Palace Theatre Cork and finally to the Helix Theatre Dublin.

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Sunday Business Post Review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

As mentioned in my previous post three reviews of the production Philadelphia, Here I Come! have been published today. Only two can be found on line, but I shall scan the Irish Mail on Sundays review and make it available here tomorrrow. Sara Keating's positively titled "New Raw Edges to Friel's play" can be found here...

Theatre: New raw edge to Friel’s play

11 November 2007 By Sara Keating

Philadelphia Here I Come! By Brian Friel, Nationwide tour

When it was first performed in 1964, Philadelphia Here I Come! was a radical piece of theatre. Not merely did it cut to the quick of an Irish society ravaged by mass emigration, but it put the psychological conflict engendered by an environment of economic and emotional poverty on the stage in the shape of two separate characters, Private Gar and Public Gar.Each character represents the divided mind of a man on the eve of his departure from his homeland. This sort of cultural schizophrenia became the dominant theme in the work of Irish writers for the next 20 years.
Ireland has changed profoundly since then. The Gar O’Donnells of the world have returned home to work with Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians and Chinese. Small towns have mushroomed.Communities have individualised. The church has lost its influence over the structure of people’s lives.So what could a play like Philadelphia Here I Come! possibly mean to an audience 43 years after it was written? Second Age Theatre’s solid production of Brian Friel’s play answers this question by performing Philadelphia as a period piece. Eileen Diss provides a naturalistic re-creation of the play’s small country kitchen set. Leonore McDonagh’s brown costumes err on the side of conservative 1960s fashion, while Sinead McKenna’s ochre lighting design evokes the sepia-toned sense of photographs fading and time gone by. In light of the play’s presence on the Leaving Certificate 2008 curriculum and the company’s status with school audiences, director Alan Stanford might be accused of playing it safe. But, with the play so embedded in a particular moment in Irish history, the backward glance effect was inevitable.In fact, it is to Stanford’s credit that he manages to find a raw edge to the play, largely through his performers. Marty Rea’s Private Gar, in particular, is superb as the repressed alter ego. With his manic energy, perfect mimicry and tense rangy physicality, Rea is like a tightly-wound metal coil about to be sprung. Sean Stewart, meanwhile, plays the 25-year-old Public Gar with spot-on sulky adolescence.Between them, they find a way to ensure that the play engages on an emotional as well as an historical level. But as Gar himself knows well, history is inescapable: ‘‘The longest way round is the fastest way home.”

Rating ***

Philadelphia Here I Come! continues at the Helix Theatre, Dublin (until November 16); Everyman Palace, Cork (November 20 & 22-23) and Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin (November 29–December 1)

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Sunday Times Reviews Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Today three more reviews have been published via the Sunday Papers; namely the Sunday Business Post, The Irish Mail on Sunday, and the Sunday Times. All 3 are uniformly positive, but it is Declan Burkes review in the Sunday Times, that strikes me as particularly pertinent. Colin Murphy of the Sunday Tribune struggled to find the contemporary relevance of the play, and here Declan Burke, highlights the relationships within the play are as resonant today as they were in 1960's Ireland.

Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Emigration is no longer the unavoidable exile for many that it was when Brian Friel's play was first produced in 1964, but a young man's inability to connect emotionally with his family is as relevant as ever. Gar Public (Sean Stewart) - goaded by his conscience, Gar Private (Marty Rea) struggles to establish meaningful relationships, especially with his father, SB O'Donnell (Walter McMonagle), on the eve of his departure to America. In a production aimed primarily at Leaving Certificate students, the director, Alan Stanford, at first emphasises the more accessible elements of the knockabout humour between Public and Private Gar. Rea and Stewart are excellent, with Rea superb at segueing from clowning to the gravitas required for the poignant finale. Aine Ni Mhuiri underplays her role as Madge, the maternal figure the motherless Gar craves, and in this relationship Gar's tragedy has its most telling contemporary resonance for young Irish Men.

Declan Burke

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