Lovers Programme 2018

LOVERS 12 MAY – 10 JUN 2018

WINNERS & LOSERS

By Brian Friel

Directed by Emma Jordan

WHAT’S ON AT THE LYRIC 9 – 27 MAY

WHAT’S ON AT THE LYRIC

THE SWORD AND THE SAND

20 – 21 JUNE

West Belfast meets East (Middle-East that is) in this new hard-hitting comedy by Pearse Elliott. Azir, a political refugee, comes here to escape a life of persecution only to find himself right back where he started. Rawlife present a hilarious drama about how idealism can lead to many different places, some hopeful, others violent.

This four-part programme examines topics that are urgent and relevant to our producer, presenter, artist, and performer members. The focus will be on Workplace Equality, The Future of Production, Facing up to Climate Change and Beyond Borders in a post-Brexit world.

HUCKLEBERRY FINN – A READING OF A NEW MUSICAL BY DUKE SPECIAL & ANDREW DOYLE

27 MAY

20 – 24 JUNE

STAGE

1 – 2 JUNE

17 – 22 JULY

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES

26 – 29 JULY

STAGE

THE ART OF LAUGHTER BY JOS HOUBEN

6 – 17 JUNE

1 – 12 AUG

13 – 30 JUNE

STAGE

BORDERLAND

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2

22 - 26 AUG

FRANK CARSON – A REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE 1-29 SEPT

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THE SNAIL AND THE WHALE Follow the tiny snail’s exciting journey, as seen through the eyes of an adventurous young girl and her seafaring father... Storytelling, live music and lots of laughs for everyone aged 4 and up.

The Snail and the Whale © Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler 2003 – Macmillan Children’s Books

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Journey with Frank from his Belfast boyhood - where life was so tough even the arms on the chairs had tattoos through his adventures in the army, and into the world of showbiz where he entertained Royalty, delighted Pope John Paul II and never forgot where he came from.

A NIGHT WITH GEORGE Not every woman gets to spend a night with George Clooney... but Bridie Murphy does! Over the course of one night, Bridie takes George on the journey of her life. From the terrible lows to the hilarious highs and charts the course to her unlikely future. Brought to you by West Belfast’s, multi-award-winning ‘Brassneck Theatre Company’, this hilarious night of theatre with it’s razor-sharp black, Belfast humour, is sure to leave everyone wishing that they too could spend ‘A Night With George’!

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Bickering brothers Sean and Ciaran are in trouble. Their work as delivery men has all but dried up as the peace process continues to pressurise their paramilitary clients. In a supposedly peaceful Northern Ireland they are standing at a crossroads, with one last delivery to make and a future to find. As their last ‘errand’ lands on the doorstep the boys bow to curiosity and take a look.

PAPERBOY It’s 1975 and 12-year-old Tony dutifully goes about his paper round. Belfast in the seventies is like the newspapers he delivers: everything is black and white, albeit Orange and Green. There are bombings on the evening news, but Paperboy is more interested in Doctor Who, the Bay City Rollers and outer space, and of course, Sharon Burgess.

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What causes a chuckle? A giggle? A hearty laugh? Renowned actor from Théâtre Complicité and longtime collaborator of Peter Brook presents a hilarious comedy about comedy.

See what makes you laugh as Houben dissects the mechanics that trigger laughter: facial expressions, the idiosyncrasies of the body, the act of falling down, and the importance of timing. Winner of the “Total Theatre Award” at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival, ‘The Art of Laughter’ is a delightful and amusing journey through one of life’s greatest pleasures.

THE GRUFFALO’S CHILD The Gruffalo said that no gruffalo should ever set foot in the deep dark wood. . . One wild and windy night the Gruffalo’s Child ignores her father’s warning and tiptoes out into the snow.

After all, the Big Bad Mouse doesn’t really exist... does he?

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The New York Times called The Vagina Monologues, “probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade.”

The play dives into the mystery, humour, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement in women’s experiences. This production is inspired by the Mothers, Artists, Makers (M.A.M) movement - an evolving, self-organised group of mothers across the island of Ireland who identify as artists and theatre makers.

3 JUNE

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER The Belfast Ensemble - with their electric fusion of live music, video and actors - present their response to Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece of terror, isolation and lunacy. Highly anticipated, this new show comes in association with the Lyric and mixes the ensemble’s unique, high-octane style with a horror classic.

The Lyric is thrilled to present a special one-off event allowing audiences a sneak peek at a stunning new musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s seminal American novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn composed by celebrated Belfast musician Duke Special with Book and Lyrics by Andrew Doyle, developed by the Lyric Theatre. A presentation of the full play and original songs, with Duke Special accompanying on piano.

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ALL-ISLAND PERFORMING ARTS CONFERENCE A Theatre Forum & TheatreNI co-production

GOOD VIBRATIONS “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!” The Lyric is thrilled to present the world premiere of the stage musical version of the popular movie charting the life of Belfast punk legend Terri Hooley, GOOD VIBRATIONS. It has been adapted for the stage by the same writing team behind the film biopic – Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson – for which the pair were nominated for Outstanding Debut at the 2014 BAFTA Film awards.

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AN EXCLUSIVE ONE-OFF READING 27 MAY 2018

WELCOME TO THE LYRIC THEATRE

A NEW MUSICAL ADAPTATION BY

DUKE SPECIAL & ANDREW DOYLE

HUCKLEBERRY

FINN

BY MARK TWAIN

Directed by Philip Crawford

We are honoured to present Brian Friel’s play Lovers (Winners and Losers) as part of our celebration of fifty years of the Lyric Theatre on Ridgeway Street.

In 1968 the French director Jean Vilar, creator of the Avignon Festival, asked “Why is it always the women who resurrect the theatre in England?” He was referring to the dynamic Joan Littlewood, whose Theatre Workshop challenged notions of what theatre was and who it was for in post-war Britain. Her sense of a popular theatre for all chimed with Vilar’s own achievements in France. But it could have also referred to the equally dynamic and resourceful Mary O’Malley, who travelled up from Cork and transformed the cultural map of Belfast during the post-war years with the creation of her Lyric Players in 1951, and the bricks and mortar of an actual playhouse in 1968.

Theatre is the most ephemeral of all the arts. But actually all art lives in the moment and then the memory. Of course you can go look at a Picasso or a Monet in a gallery or a book, and watch a film in the cinema, but at some stage you have to leave that gallery or close that book and exit that cinema and then it’s what is left in your memory that is most important. Theatre by its very nature is only completed by the audience and actors coming together and only then can the alchemy of a play come alive. Mary O’Malley, and all who worked with her and came after her, created a space by the banks of the Lagan where we could experience this alchemy. The fact that the theatre was rebuilt in May 2011 into this beautiful venue with its stunning views is even more reason to celebrate the exuberant communal spirit of the Lyric.

Theatre matters in Belfast, in the North; in our artistic imagination and lives.

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Brian Friel proved himself over and over as one of the great truth-seeking alchemists of theatre. He experimented with what was achievable on stage in form and content, shadows and substance. In Philadelphia, Here I Come he split a young man into two and called both selves Gar, Public and Private.

He allowed the shadow of death cross over the sisters of Dancing at Lughnasa and brought the play to an end with a fitting celebration of pastoral life so that the memory of it would not be crudely depressing but tinted with the slight blur of nostalgia.

In Translations he allowed two languages to exist in perfect comprehension to the audience while driving home the barbarity of conformity as a tool of war and subjugation. All these innovations and experiments with form are present in his early work such as Lovers (Winners and Losers). Even the title is a play on our assumptions. Can a young dead couple really be winners? Can an older middle aged couple that stayed together really be losers? That is for the audience to decide. The play is dedicated to the hugely influential and brilliant Anglo-Irish director Tyrone Guthrie, who took the young Friel under his wing and showed him the unique possibilities that the magic of theatre could offer.

In 1968 the baby boomers had come of age and revolution was in the air. Brian Friel had written this play (July ‘67), Mary O’Malley opened this theatre (October ‘68) and Van Morrison released Astral Weeks (November ‘68). Many more things happened in 1968, but for these three there is much for which to be grateful. We hope you enjoy this production and please do leave feedback on this or any aspect of the theatre. If you have memories to share please do get in touch with us memories@Lyrictheatre.co.uk Jimmy Fay Executive Producer Lyric Theatre

DIRECTOR’S NOTE I was thrilled and more than a little daunted when the Lyric invited me to direct Brian Friel’s Lovers Winners and Losers.

Winners is one of the few Irish plays that I remember being dramatised in my youth. The sole authentic Northern articulation of Love and Frustration, unconnected to ‘the troubles’ - I remember vividly the inspired teachers of my Theatre Studies class adapting Winners as a duologue, set on the Black Mountain in West Belfast.

On reflection, that is the true power of Friel’s play - it speaks beyond Ballymore, beyond Ballybeg, beyond Ireland. I feel that I am in the delicious flux of beginning to grasp Friel’s thoughts and though I am ‘no scholar’, I feel the pulsating anger in these ‘love’ plays - and I believe that you will too, because I don’t feel that we have moved too far beyond the

toxic binding ties he articulates so beautifully - so heartbreakingly. The stranglehold of organised religion, the small-town insularity, and troubling family relations all still resonate. And beyond all of that a feeling of despair - the Beckettian gaze into the void through second-hand binoculars - the inability of human beings at all stages of their lives to find a way to say, and be, all that they feel in their hearts.

Mags’ line about her parent’s words ‘they seared my soul forever’ speaks to us all - who we were, who we are, who we don’t want to become, how we might do better next time. In my opinion Friel’s work is full of heart and insight and has as much to say to us - 50 years on, as it ever did.

Emma Jordan Director

PHOTO: JOHNNY FRAZER

“IN MY OPINION FRIEL’S WORK IS FULL OF HEART AND INSIGHT AND HAS AS MUCH TO SAY TO US - 50 YEARS ON, AS IT EVER DID”

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FROM THE ARCHIVES In the first half of the twentieth century Ireland produced a few first-rate dramatists – Shaw, Synge and O’Casey immediately come to mind – as well as many dramatists perhaps not of the first flight – Lennox, Robinson, George Shiels, St John Ervine and dozens of others. When the dramatic history of the second half of the century comes to be written I consider it very likely indeed that Brian Friel’s name will come near the top for sustained achievement.

Indeed Friel may not yet have produced his best work, yet already he has written plays good enough to have given him an enviable reputation throughout the world His break through came only six years ago with Philidelphia Here I Come!, still perhaps his most popular play. With Philideplhia Here I Come! It became obvious that another major Irish dramatist had emerged. To quote Sir Tyrone Guthrie: “Brian Friel is a born playwright… humour, compassion and poetry pour out of him with the spontaneity of a bird’s song.”

The Loves of Cass McGuire followed in 1966 – a worthy successor, though perhaps not so popular with the public – a play in which Friel again showed his profound understanding of Irish people.

inner necessity, from imaginative compulsion. He has achieved wide fame but appears quite indifferent to it. His satisfaction rests firmly in his work. With little interest in fashionable theories of content or form, Friel has very deliberately gone his own way.

He believes, like Chekov, that it is not the job of dramatists to offer solutions to problems. Dramatists “are not marriage counsellors, nor father confessors, nor politicians, nor economists… they are concerned with one man’s insignificant place in the here-andnow world.”

Lovers is a double bill. Its subject is love. The first play Winners presents the story of tragic young love; the second, Losers, the love of frustrated middleage. In these two plays Friel’s sense of elegiac poetry and rumbustious comedy are seen at their best.

John Boyd 2nd June, 1970

Then came Lovers, Crystal and Fox, and The Munday Scheme, each different and each successful in it’s own genre. With each successive play Friel displays not only his artistic ingenuity but, more important still, his artistic integrity. He writes, as it were, from

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LOVERS 12 MAY – 10 JUN 2018

WINNERS & LOSERS

By Brian Friel

Directed by Emma Jordan

CREDITS CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE) MAN / ANDY WOMAN / HANNA MAG JOE MRS WILSON CISSY CASSIDY

CHARLIE BONNER ABIGAIL McGIBBON RUBY CAMPBELL THOMAS FINNEGAN HELENA BEREEN CAROL MOORE

CREATIVE TEAM WRITER DIRECTOR SET & LIGHTING DESIGNER COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR TRAINEE DIRECTOR

BRIAN FRIEL EMMA JORDAN CIARAN BAGNALL NEIL MARTIN ENDA KENNY FIONNUALA KENNEDY COLM G DORAN

PRODUCTION TEAM PRODUCTION MANAGER CASTING DIRECTOR DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER TECHNICIANS CARPENTERS SCENIC ARTIST COSTUME SUPERVISOR COSTUME ASSISTANT COSTUME MAINTENANCE

PAUL HINCHCLIFFE CLARE GAULT TRACEY LINDSAY STEPHEN DIX IAN VENNARD CONAL CLAPPER ALAN MOONEY STEPHEN BAMFORD PHILIP GOSS CHRIS HUNTER GILLIAN LENNOX ERIN CHARTERIS ROISIN OWENS

THE LYRIC THEATRE WOULD LIKE TO THANK: CASTLE STAGE HIRE, PETER BALLANCE, DONAL O’FARRELL THERE WILL BE A 20 MINUTE INTERVAL AFTER PART 1

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BRIAN FRIEL

Brian Friel was born in Killyclogher, near Omagh, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on 9 January 1929.

His family moved to Derry/Londonderry in 1939, where Friel was educated in St. Columb’s College.

He attended Saint Patrick's College Maynooth, before taking a post-graduate teaching course in St. Joseph’s Training College, Belfast. He began teaching in Derry/ Londonderry in 1950. Residing in the border county of Derry/Londonderry, his mother was from Donegal and his family had a close connection to that county.

Friel retired from his career as a teacher in 1960 to commit to writing plays full-time. He studied with the great theatre director Tyrone Guthrie in Minneapolis in 1963, and while there wrote Philadelphia, Here I Come!

The play was a huge success and consolidated Friel’s career as a playwright. Friel enjoyed more major critical and commercial successes in each of the following three decades, particularly with Faith Healer (1979), Translations (1980) and Dancing at Lughnasa (1991). In 1967 Friel moved to Donegal, settling in Greencastle, less than 20 miles from the border. He continued to be involved in and retained a connection with Northern Ireland, treating the border as permeable rather than as a barrier or a limiting factor for his creativity. Friel continued to work in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and internationally. He established the Field Day Theatre Company in Derry/ Londonderry in 1980 alongside actor Stephen Rea. Friel’s critically acclaimed Translations was the first of many Field Day productions to be performed at Derry’s Guildhall before travelling throughout Ireland and across the world.

The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed the continuing international popularity of his plays, and revivals of these continued in large numbers.

The respect and admiration in which Brian Friel is held is reflected in the many awards and honours bestowed upon him. Dancing at Lughnasa, perhaps his most famous play, won three Tony Awards, including Best Play in 1992 and in 1998 it was adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep. Dancing at Lughnasa also received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Broadway Play and a Laurence Olivier Award (1991). Molly Sweeney and Aristocrats received New York Drama Circle awards for Best Foreign Play. Faith Healer received a Tony Award in 2006 and both Aristocrats (1988) and The Home Place (2005) won London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Friel was awarded the title of Saoi (wise one), the highest honour bestowed by Aosdána, the Irish parliament of artists, in 2006. Other recipients of this prestigious award include Seamus Heaney and Samuel Beckett.

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CAST

Friel’s work is studied at both GCSE and A level (UK), and the Leaving Certificate (Ireland), as well as at university level, in Ireland, the UK and internationally.

His work achieved global acclaim over four decades.

He is considered to be one of the greatest Englishlanguage dramatists of his generation, referred to as the ‘Irish Chekhov’ and the ‘universally accented voice of Ireland’. Friel’s creative output has enjoyed widespread popularity and global reach; his plays have been translated into many languages and are performed in theatres across the world. Friel died on 2 October 2015 at home in Greencastle, County Donegal.

On the evening of Tuesday 8 December 2015 the marquees of Broadway theatres in New York dimmed their lights for one minute, a tradition reserved only for those who are held in the highest regard by the theatre community.

Lovers had its world premiere of at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, 18 July to 30 Sep 1967, directed by Hilton Edwards, starring Niall Toibin, Eamon Morrissey, Fionnuala Flanagan, Ruth Durley, Anna Manahan and Cathleen Delany. Lovers premiered in America in the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York as part of Lincoln Centre Festival on 25 July to 14 September 1968, before transferring to the Music Box, New York on 17 September to 2 November. The American premiere was directed by Hilton Edwards, starring Art Carney/Peter Lind Hayes, Fionnuala Flanagan, Eamon Morrissey, Anna Manahan, Beulah Garrick and Grania O’Malley. The production then went on a nationwide tour. Lovers was nominated for Best Dramatic Play in the 1968 Tony Awards. Lovers has been produced in theatres around the world and was revived for a New York production in 2012 by The Actors Company Theatre at Theatre Row’s Beckett Theatre, directed by Drew Barr, starring Kati Brazda, Cameron Scoggins, Cynthia Darlow, Justine Salata, Nora Chester and James Riordan. Reviewing the play for The Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout stated: ‘If life were fair, Brian Friel, the foremost living playwright in the Englishspeaking world, would have won a Nobel Prize long ago. All you see in Lovers are Mr. Friel’s small-town characters, realized so fully (by Mr. Riordan and Ms. Salata in particular) that they give the impression of having been played by ordinary people’.

Helena Bereen Mrs Wilson

Charlie Bonner Man / Andy

Ruby Campbell Mag

Helena, born in Cullybackey and living in Killinchy, originally trained as a nurse in the RVH. She has been acting professionally for nearly 30 years. She has worked in the original Lyric Theatre many times, but is excited for her first performance in the new building.

Charlie last appeared at the Lyric Theatre in Sinners. His previous appearances at the Lyric included Dancing At Lughnasa and Brian Friel's Volunteers in 1994.

Ruby trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Helena trained at The Gaiety in Dublin and The Focus Theatre Dublin.

Some of her favourite roles are: Aunt Pasha in Black Milk, Auntie Ah in Woman and Scarecrow (Prime Cut Theatre Co.); Aunt Lizzie in Family Plot (Tinderbox Theatre Co.); Mary in The Country Boy, Marya in Riders to the Sea, Maggie in The Haunting of Helena Blunden, Cissy in Lovers (Big Telly Theatre Co.); Kate in All My Sons (Arts Theatre); Gertrude in Hamlet, Mary in The Tinkers Wedding (Yew Theatre Co.); Mother Superior in Children of Eve, Eve in Strategy for Butterflies, Faye in Chapter Two (Andrews Lane Theatre Dublin).

Television credits include: Mo (Channel 4); Millie in Between (CBBC); Glenroe and Fair City (RTE).

Feature films include: I Am Belfast

by Mark Cousins, Hunger by Steve McQueen, Don't Leave Home by Michael Tully, The Devils Doorway

by Aislinn Clarke and numerous short films including Oscar winning The Shore, Bafta winning United and multi award winning The Immaculate Misconception.

Paul Murphy Lecturer School of Arts, English & Languages and Drama Queen’s University Belfast

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Other theatre credits include Prime Cut’s production of Every Day I Wake Up Hopeful by John Patrick Higgins for Edgefest; Philadelphia Here I Come; Good Evening Mr Collins; Monkey; Melonfarmer; Macbeth, Observatory; Living Quarters; The Shaughraun; Toupees & Snare Drums and Portia Coughlan at the Abbey Theatre and Peacock Theatre, Dublin. He has worked with theatre companies throughout Ireland including the Gate, Bedrock, Livin Dred, Pan Pan, Red Kettle, Corcadorca, Field Day and Second Age amongst others.

Film and TV includes Zoo, Maze, The Devil's Doorway, Childer, Rebellion, Red Rock, Omagh, The Tudors, The Race, Starfish, Proof, Fair City and The Crush.

Theatre includes: Splish Splash (Oily Cart); u/s Shena Carney in The Ferryman (Royal Court/Sonia Friedman Productions); Margaret Barry in She Moved Through The Fair (Tron Theatre/Celtic Connections Festival); Clare in Girls and Dolls (Pintsized Productions); Babble in Off Broadway Run (Replay Theatre Company); Beth in Lifeboat (Replay Theatre Company) and Lady Windermere in Lady Windermere's Fan (Bruiser Theatre Company).

Theatre whilst training includes: Betsy in Sweet Charity; Gabriella Pecs in Pentecost; Macduff/Witch in Macbeth; Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music; Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals; Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Dromio of Syrcause in The Comedy of Errors.

Film includes: Emma in The Dissenter (Dumbworld Productions).

CAST

CREATIVE TEAM

Thomas Finnegan Joe

Abigail McGibbon Woman / Hanna

Carol Moore Cissy Cassidy

Thomas trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Whilst there he performed in VS09 and You Can Take It With You (Richard Burton Theatre Company, 2014). Since graduating Thomas' film credits include the award winning short A Confession (Irresistible Films 2015).

Abigail, from Belfast, trained at The Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin. At the Lyric Theatre she has appeared in The Ladykillers, St. Joan, Can’t Forget About You (Tron Theatre), The Glass Menagerie, Macbeth (Prime Cut Productions), How I Learned to Drive, A Whistle In the Dark, As the Beast Sleeps, Hamlet (Abbey Theatre Co-Pro), Shadowlands, Death of a Salesman, Jane Eyre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Carol Moore was born in Glengormley and lives in Bangor.

His radio credits include The Fewness Of His Words (BBC Radio NI, 2013) David Ireland's Not Now (BBC Radio Scotland, 2015) Hiding Out (BBC Radio NI, 2017) and Lock In (BBC Radio NI, 2018) His stage credits include The Enemy Within (Kabosh theatre Company, 2015); Blackout (Lyric Theatre Belfast, 2015); 1932 The People of Gallagher Street (Green Shoot Productions, 2016); and his debut performance on the Danske Bank Stage in Here Comes the Night (Lyric Theatre Belfast, 2016) and the multi award winning RED (Prime Cut Productions and the Lyric Theatre Belfast, 2017) for which he was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre award for best supporting Actor.

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Other theatrical credits include: The Moot Virginity of Catherine of Aragon, The Doppler Effect (Belfast Ensemble), Everything Between Us (Rough Magic), The End of Hope (Oran Mor, Glasgow).

Film credits include H3, The Attendant and Mercy.

She is Performance Associate with the Belfast Ensemble. Abigail also received the Irish Times Award for Best Supporting Actress 2015 for Everything Between Us.

Theatre credits include: Macbeth, Pentecost, Can’t Forget About You & The Blind Fiddler (Lyric Theatre); Those You Pass on the Street, Belfast by Moonlight, Titans, 1 in 5, Two Roads West, Henry & Harriet (Kabosh); Shrieking Sisters (Maggie Cronin & Carol Moore); Dusty Dusting (David Hull); The Sweetie Bottle (Brass Neck).

Television/Film credits: Mother’s Day (BBC), Come Home (BBC), Mercy (NIScreen/Out of Orbit), Guard (Honesty Inc.), The Lodge (Disney Channel), Rendevous (Clean Slate); The Truth Commissioner (Big Fish).

Film directing credits include: Short Film - Gort an gCnámh (Best First Time Director - Celtic Film Festival & Foyle Film Festival), Feature Film - Pumpgirl by Abbie Spallen & Nesta Fellowship films, The Farther, The Dearer, This Belfast Thing, Crack the Pavement and History Unfinished (NI Regional Winner of BAFTA 60 SEC 2008). Writing credits: Shrieking Sisters, co-written with Maggie Cronin and a new one woman play about ageing The Experience of Being.

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Brian Friel (9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) Writer

Emma Jordan Director

Ciaran Bagnall Set & Lighting Designer

Brian Friel is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists, having written over 30 plays across six decades. He was a member of Aosdana, the society of Irish artists, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Irish Academy of Letters, and the Royal Society of Literature where he was made a Companion of Literature. He was awarded the Ulysses Medal

by University College, Dublin.

Emma Jordan is Prime Cut’s Artistic Director and has directed a strong body of critically award-winning plays most recently East Belfast Boy

by Fintan Brady as part of EdgeFest at the MAC, Red by John Logan a Prime Cut & Lyric co-production (Winner of Best Director, Best Production, Best Actor and Best Set Design at the 2017 Irish Times Theatre Awards and short-listed for Best Director: UK Theatre Awards 2017) and Stacey Gregg’s Scorch, winner of 7 awards in Ireland, the UK and Australia, over 25 5* and 4* reviews, which has played to standing ovations in Belfast, across the island of Ireland, UK, the Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Sweden and Germany.

Directing credits also include After Miss Julie [Patrick Marber], The God Of Carnage (Yasmina Reza), The Conquest of Happiness (Co-created & directed with Haris Pasovic) I Am My Own Wife [Doug Wright], Blackbird (David Harrower), Shoot The Crow (Owen McCafferty), Scarborough (Fiona Evans), Woman and Scarecrow (Marina Carr), After The End (Denis Kelly). Emma directed Educating Rita for the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in 2016 followed by an Irish tour in 2017. Her producing credits for Prime Cut include Three Tall Women (Assistant Director), The Coronation Voyage, Shopping and Fucking, American Buffalo, Macbeth, The Chance, After Darwin, The Mercy Seat, Ashes To Ashes, A Number, Cold Comfort, The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek, Scenes From The Big Picture, Owen McCafferty’s version of Antigone, Vincent River, The Chilean Trilogy and most recently Jack Thorne’s Mydidae. In 2014 Emma was the recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Cultural Entrepreneurship Breakthrough Award and the Spirit of Festival Award at the Belfast International Arts Festival 2015.

Born: Newry, Co.Down Currently lives: Belfast Trained at: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.

Plays include Hedda Gabler (after Ibsen), The Home Place, Performances, Three Plays After (Afterplay, The Bear, The Yalta Game), Uncle Vanya (after Chekhov), Give Me Your Answer Do!, Molly Sweeney (Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play), Wonderful Tennessee, A Month in the Country (after Turgenev), The London Vertigo (after Charles Macklin), Dancing at Lughnasa (Winner of 3 Tony Awards including Best Play, New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Olivier Award for Best Play), Making History, The Communication Cord, American Welcome, Three Sisters (after Chekhov), Translations, Aristocrats (Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play), Faith Healer, Fathers and Sons, Living Quarters, Volunteers, The Freedom of the City, The Gentle Island, The Mundy Scheme, Crystal and Fox, Lovers: Winners and Losers, The Loves of Cass Maguire, Philadelphia Here I Come!

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Lyric Theatre Credits: Set & Lighting Design for Beauty and the Beast, What the Reindeer Saw, RED, White Star of the North. Set Design for Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme. Lighting Design for The Weir, Three Sisters, St Joan, Pentecost, Philadephia, Here I come!, The Little Prince and Pump Girl.

Recent Lighting and Set Designs include: The Man who fell to Pieces (Tinderbox, MAC, Belfast); Hard to be Soft (MAC, Belfast); The Great Gatsby (Gate Theatre, Dublin); The Train (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Ashes, Educating Rita (Octagon Theatre, Bolton); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe, London); Singin’ in the Rain (UK Tour); Othello (RSC, Stratford upon Avon); Snookered (Bush Theatre, London); The Killing of Sister George (Arts Theatre, London); A Slight Ache and Landscape (Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre London).

Recent Lighting Designs include: Hamlet (Octagon, Bolton); Dido, Queen of Carthage (RSC); After the Dance (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick); The Pillowman (Gaiety, Dublin); Perseverance Drive (The Bush Theatre, London); Home (National Theatre Shed, London); Much Ado about Nothing (RSC, Stratford Upon Avon & London West End).

Awards: 2017 Best Set Design Irish Times Theatre Awards - “RED” and “The Great Gatsby” 2016 Best Design Manchester Theatre Awards - “Singin’ in the Rain” 2014 Best Lighting Design Irish Times Theatre Awards - “Pentecost” 2009 Best Design Manchester Theatre Awards - “Oleanna”

CREATIVE TEAM Neil Martin Composer & Sound Designer Belfast-born Neil Martin is a composer and musician with an international reputation, who enjoys a most varied and rewarding career encompassing dance, opera, theatre, film, television, radio, concert hall and studio. Recent compositions include “Sweeney”, for solo traditional singer, narrator and orchestra, based on Seamus Heaney’s “Sweeney Astray”. Other significant works include a score for Oscar Wilde’s “De Profundis”; an octet, “The Helping Hand”; along with librettist Glenn Patterson -“Long Story Short: The Belfast Opera” and the choral symphony “OSSA”. A cellist and an uilleann piper, he has collaborated with many leading artists, from Liam O'Flynn, Bryn Terfel, Sam Shepard, Christy Moore, Stephen Rea, Jean Butler and Barry Douglas to the LSO, RPO and all the principle orchestras in Ireland. Neil has scored music for plays on Broadway, in the West End and in Europe, and has contributed to more than a hundred albums.

Performance venues range from Carnegie Hall to the Palazzo

Vecchio and his ground-breaking work with the West Ocean String Quartet has been lauded globally, and beyond – all of the quartet’s albums have been played aboard the International Space Station.

Enda Kenny Costume Designer Enda has worked in costume departments in theatre and film for the last 15 years.

He works as a Costume Designer, Prop Costume Maker, Textile Artist and Milliner. He has designed for the Lyric on a number of occasions and created work for many UK based theatres including ENO, NI Opera, ROH Covent Garden, National Theatre London and the Lyceum Theatre London to name a few. Previously Enda has worked with Prime Cut Productions as Costume Designer on Scorch.

Previous TV and film work includes Fortitude Season 2, Emerald City, Game of Thrones, Your Highness, The Golden Compass and King Arthur.

Fionnuala Kennedy Assistant Director

Colm G Doran Trainee Director

Fionnuala is a writer/director from Belfast. Her directing credits include: Reset (The MAC Belfast); Entitled: The Assessment (An Culturlann); Entitled and Hostel (Macha Productions); My Big Fat Belfast Christmas and Last Orders at the Rough Diamond by Caroline Curran & Julie Maxwell (Theatre at the Mill); The Place Between (Prime Cut Productions); Laser Lunacy, Shankill Stories, Collecting Cultures, and Wonderwall (Kabosh).

Colm is a Belfast based director and writer. He graduated from QUB with a first class honours degree in Drama and English. He went on to attain a Masters in Broadcast Literacy, specialising in the digitalisation of live theatre. His directing credits include: Date Show (The MAC Belfast); Home-Work/Long Gone (The Black Box Belfast); Take it Easy and Catching Up (Accidental Theatre Company, Belfast). Assistant director credits include: The Vagina Monologues (The Black Box, Belfast); East Belfast Boy and Every Day I Wake Up Hopeful (The MAC, Belfast); Ten Days That Shook Belfast (The Linen Hall Library Belfast). In 2017 Colm was the recipient of the James Ellis Bursary in Theatre Directing, allowing him the opportunity to work with Prime Cut Productions. This period of training will culminate in a rehearsed reading of a piece he is currently developing.

He is the Associate Director of Three’s Theatre Company.

Her writing credits include: Hostel (Macha Productions/Kabosh); Entitled (Macha Productions); Hatchet (Terranova Theatre Company); Closer (Replay Theatre Company).

Fionnuala is currently under commission with Prime Cut Productions creating a play about young people in the care system in Northern Ireland.

Fionnuala is an artist on Prime Cut Productions’ Reveal Programme.

She is delighted to be working on Lovers, for the opportunity to work on a Brian Friel play with acclaimed director Emma Jordan.

TA I L O R E D

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THE LYRIC THEATRE

MASTERCLASSES As part of our New Playwrights Programme 2018 the Lyric is delighted to present a series of masterclasses with established writers, dramaturgs and directors for local playwrights. All workshops are free, but spaces are limited, so for details on how to sign up, please visit our website: lyrictheatre.co.uk/new-writing-lyric

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WRITING

SUZANNE BELL - 19 MAY Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

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OLA ANIMASHAWUN - 02 JUNE Dramaturg and Playwriting Consultant at Euphoric Ink. Former Artistic Associate at the Royal Court.

JANE McCARTHY - 28 JULY Playwright and Assistant Theatre Manager & New Writing Coordinator at New Theatre, Dublin.

JAMES GRIEVE - 8 SEPTEMBER Co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough, the award-winning touring theatre company.

SIMON STEPHENS - 3 OCTOBER Multi award-winning writer of Pornography, Punk Rock and the stage adaption The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

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LYRIC THEATRE

1 – 30 SEPT 2018 A LYRIC THEATRE PRODUCTION BASED ON THE AWARD WINNING FILM

VIIBBRATIIOONS VIBRATIONS Directed By Des Kennedy

Original Screenplay And Stage Adaptation By Colin Carberry & Glenn Patterson

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