St. Joan Programme 2016

10 Sept – 8 Oct 2016

By Bernard Shaw Directed by Jimmy Fay

The Lyric Theatre and Young Vic

THE NEST

15 OCT - 12 NOV 2016

1 – 22 oct 2016

By Franz Xaver Kroetz New translation by Conor McPherson Directed by Ian Rickson Designed by Alyson Cummins Original score composed by PJ Harvey, performed by PJ Harvey and James Johnston

By Lucy Caldwell from the play by Anton Chekhov Directed by Selina Cartmell

Starring Caoilfhionn Dunne and Laurence Kinlan

27 NOV 2016 – 14 JAN 2017

Kyron Bourke and Christina Nelson in

the NATIVITY what the DONKEY SAW

By Conor Grimes and Alan McKee Directed by Frankie McCafferty

Starring Conor Grimes, Terry Keeley, Alan McKee, Tara Lynne O’Neill and Kerri Quinn

7 DEC 2016 – 7 JAN 2017

By Martin Murphy

AUTUMN / WINTER AT THE LYRIC

AUTUMN / WINTER AT THE LYRIC

Sept 14 - 17

OCT 2

DISCO PIGS

Following the success of Tim McGarry’s Irish History Lesson, Tim returns with a brand new stand-up show about our history, concentrating on the bits that we think matter the most. And because of the year that’s in, it can only be the 1916 Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme. Expect myths to be exploded and sacred cows to be slaughtered, but above all expect laughs...

Enda Walsh’s explosive, highly-acclaimed play about two teenage friends from Cork City teetering on the brink of adulthood comes to the Lyric for the first time. On the eve of their 17th birthday, fuelled by potent cider and their burgeoning sexual desire, Pig and Runt celebrate as only they know how – by getting wasted and thumping anyone who gets in their way. But as their rebellious weekend reaches its climax, this unique relationship implodes with tragic consequences.

SEPT 18

TIM McGARRY

OCT 15 – NOV 12

Chekhov’s masterpiece from 1900 is reset in 1990s Belfast by award-winning novelist and playwright Lucy Caldwell. Three sisters – Orla, Marianne and Erin – dream of a better tomorrow, perhaps even starting a new life in America. All three are dissatisfied with their lives for different reasons, but struggle to make the lifechanging decisions that will bring real happiness. And all the while, other people’s fortunes are constantly changing and intertwining around them – friends, lovers, their brother and his Chinese girlfriend, army officers stationed in Belfast. Can they break free, or will they be condemned to a life of unfulfilled ambition?

SOWETO SPIRITUAL SINGERS Soweto Spiritual Singers is a 27-strong vocal ensemble, who perform African spiritual, folk and traditional music and dance all around the world. Their music is truly inspirational, a shout of Joy, a towering onslaught of exuberance with earthy rhythms and rich harmonies to uplift the soul. A truly spiritual experience!

SEPT 21 - 24

FIRST LOVE

Oct 23

PETER CORRY’S MASTERS OF THE MUSICALS

The Gate Theatre Dublin presents Samuel Beckett’s witty, moving and poetic short story in which a narrator reminisces about the woman he considers to have been his first love – a prostitute named Lulu whom he meets as a world-weary homeless young man. The relationship he is reluctantly drawn into challenges his view of life, but will it change him?

SEPT 25

Peter Corry returns to the Lyric Theatre with a new show celebrating the best of the musicals. There are all the classic favourites from shows like Phantom of the Opera, Grease and Oliver, and of course songs from the brilliant Les Miserables. A night not to be missed by all musical theatre fans.

OCT 25 - 30

PAUL BYROM

OCT 30

THE NEST

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DOUG ALLEN – IN THE COMPANY OF GIANTS What’s it like to face a hungry polar bear and its cubs as they emerge from their den? How do you look for killer whales in vast reaches of the seas around Antarctica? Join multi-award winning cameraman, Doug Allan (Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Ocean Giants, Wild Cameraman at Work) for an unforgettable evening of extraordinary animal adventures.

The Lyric Theatre and Young Vic present Conor McPherson’s powerful new version of the German fable about the moral and environmental cost of our materialistic nesting instincts, directed

by Ian Rickson and starring Caoilfhionn Dunne and Laurence Kinlan, with original music by PJ Harvey. Parents-to-be Kurt and Martha just want the best for their baby. They’re not afraid of hard work - the latest buggy doesn’t come cheap. But when Kurt’s boss offers him a chance to make some easy money with a mysterious side job, his rashness catches up with him.

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BELFAST RISING Belfast, 1916; an industrial powerhouse at the heart of an empire.

A city immersed in the revolutionary and radical politics of its time that would drive a number of its citizens to strike for their country’s freedom. This powerful new production from the multi-awardwinning Brassneck Theatre Company, explores the impact that Belfast had upon the Easter Rising of 1916.

One of Ireland’s leading tenors, Paul Byrom is a star of the hit show Celtic Thunder, and has been making records since the age of 14. His latest album, Thinking of Home, reached the top of the iTunes, Amazon and World Billboard Charts and he has just been named for the second time in three years, The Irish Tenor Of The Year by the Irish Music Association.

OCT 1 - 22

THREE SISTERS

NOV 6

THE 4 OF US The 4 Of Us bring their critically-acclaimed acoustic show to the Lyric, showcasing songs from their brand new album Sugar Island and from their extensive back catalogue. From their first anthem Mary, through to the UK-charting She Hits Me, to Sunlight - the band has notched up over two decades of radio hits and six top 20 charting albums.

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AUTUMN / WINTER AT THE LYRIC

AUTUMN / WINTER AT THE LYRIC

Nov 8 – 13

NOV 20

COLIN BATEMAN’S BAG FOR LIFE

CARA DILLON

Award winning novelist and screenwriter Colin Bateman’s second stage play asks the question, can forgiveness overcome the want for revenge in 21st century Northern Ireland? Commissioned as a legacy project for Derry Londonderry’s 2013 UK City of Culture and presented by Derry Playhouse, this powerful and captivating play is laced with the blackest of humour.

NOV 13

If you don’t know the voice of Cara Dillon, you’re in for a treat. If you are already amongst her legions of admirers around the world, you know you have something special in store. Come and join this exceptional singer-songwriter for a night of Christmas music in what will undoubtedly be a magical and memorable festive experience.

NOV 27 – JAN 14

THIS IS HOW WE FLY TIHWF brings together four musicians, each of them rooted in different cultures and musical vocabularies. A sublime Irish fiddler who’s not afraid to step outside convention, a sophisticated Appalachian hard shoe dancer stepping into the rhythmic foreground, a thoughtful Dublin jazzman who has moved beyond the linear constraints of the genre, and a lyrical Swedish percussionist redefining the melodic and sonic place of drums within the contours of traditional song.

NOV 15 - 16

Chapter One of the greatest story ever told, as seen through the eyes of the only truly reliable witness, the donkey. This irreverent seasonal comedy looks for answers to some big questions: why didn’t Joseph book a room in advance - didn’t he know the place would be packed for Christmas? Who looked after the sheep while the shepherds were wetting the baby’s head? Would the wise men not have been wiser to club together and buy the kid a high-chair?

What did the donkey see and why was he looking? Just a few questions to ponder while you make your mind up to come and see this hilarious version of the Christmas story.

LUCK JUST KISSED YOU HELLO DEC 7 – JAN 7

How do you say goodbye to your nemesis, your genesis? Laura returns home for the death of her father, but Laura is now Mark. He, along with Gary and Sullivan, must decide on how he is remembered. They must find a way to forgive, find a way to each other and find a way to recognise themselves again.

Presented as part of the Outburst Queer Arts Festival.

NOV 17 - 19

MURDER ON THE DANCEFLOOR

DEC 16 - 18

THREE EVENINGS WITH DUKE SPECIAL & GUESTS The inimitable Duke Special signs off his year-long artistic residency at the Lyric with three very special concerts featuring new and existing compositions, including the first ever performances of songs from his new musical based on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Duke will be joined by different friends and musical collaborators each night, resulting in three completely different concerts.

BASTARD AMBER Bastard Amber is a major new work by leading Irish choreographer, Liz Roche. Moving her rigorous exploration of the body into the realm of the soul, this enthralling and profound journey into humankind’s spiritual quest is partly inspired by WB Yeats’ seminal poem Sailing to Byzantium and the meditative golden paintings of the late Patrick Scott. A co-production between the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival and Liz Roche Company, co-commissioned by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival and Kilkenny Arts Festival.

NOV 19

THE GINGERBREAD MIX-UP Meet Primrose: apple of her Dad’s eye, bane of her Mum’s life, allround little monster. Cast out in the forest with only her Nintendo for company, Primrose meets Pardon – cool cat turned witch’s assistant, with a promising sideline in Big Bad Wolf impersonations.

Can Pardon save Primrose from the evil old witch’s cooking pot? Will the witch find out who’s been eating her gingerbread house? Will Primrose ever finish level 4 of Bandor, Master of Neverworld? Find out in The Gingerbread Mix-Up, only at the Lyric this Christmas!

It’s the day of the 2002 Inter-city, Inter-gender, Big Belfast Disco Dance-Off final. The four greatest Disco Dancers Belfast has ever seen are taking to the stage and will do anything to win. Anything.

Murder on the Dancefloor is a sidesplitting, laugh-out-loud comedy that will leave you wanting More, More, More. Written by Scampi, Chips & Tartar Sauce.

NOV 18

NATIVITY – WHAT THE DONKEY SAW

THIS FILTHY WORLD Outburst Queer Arts Festival celebrates its 10th Birthday with one of the great icons of cult cinema John Waters, live and in person! This joyously, devious and continuously updated monologue is a rally cry against the tyranny of good taste and serves as a call to arms for “filth followers” everywhere.

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WELCOME “the essential politics seems the same to me as it was in the 14th century or even the early part of the 20th century when Shaw wrote it”

I first read St. Joan by Bernard Shaw when I was about 13. I read it just after I read, in quick succession, Animal Farm, Dracula, 1984 and The Playboy of the Western World in a Modern Library edition that had a mostly black cover with a small, greenish, picture of Francis Bacon’s exploding Pope off to one side. The cover is important because I kept looking at it when I couldn’t understand the text. Even though the story was set in medieval times the cover, in all its screaming violence, made it modern, new, frightening. My head was full of gothic cathedrals, Soviet politics and vampires. Shaw’s Joan entered this world with a calming focus and forceful purpose.

I had planned to produce St. Joan with the Lyric as part of our Vivid Faces season and allow its obvious resonances chime with this particular year, 2016. He had after all written a lot of it in Cork in 1922 with the grand cacophony of the Great War, the Rising, the war of independence, the Civil War as a backdrop. Roger Casement and Lawrence of Arabia was much in his mind too. But Joan dominated it. He wanted to write about her for at least a decade.

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I used the play St. Joan as the basis for our entry into the Linbury competition. A superb philanthropic initiative, set up by the Sainsburys and administrated through the National Theatre, that allows young and emerging Stage Designers to work with established theatres.

The Royal Court, Nuffield, the Traverse were also part of the competition. We all, after many interviews, ended up with three designers each. The final Lyric three all used Joan as their text and each of the designers after much discussion and a crash course in early 20th Century Irish politics came up with vivid and very different concepts. Interestingly, none of these were set in medieval France. One was desert-like and had a strange futuristic aspect to it, the other was a beautiful yet bombed-out Gothic church in a landscape evocative of the Somme, that brilliantly captured the play in a WW1 setting. But I liked Grace Smart’s modern “office setting” immediately; it spoke something essentially modern and frightening to me, it implied and enforced the patriarchal power structures still in place. The Joan who entered this world would be a modern-day female rebel in the Pussy Riot/ Sinead O’Connor tradition.

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Not a saint but a fundamentalist. She would be a blot on the order of things and once she served her purpose then she would be wiped out. This to me seems to be exactly what Joan was and what happened to her.

Grace not only won the Lyric part of the award she also won the overall Linbury award.

I asked the actor Philip O’Sullivan to edit the script as I knew Philip would maintain and focus the play’s essential arguments while not scarifying the, occasionally dramatically strange, Shavian syntax of repetitive argument.

But even Philip didn’t thank me for stripping it down to only seven actors. My intention was to have a fully focused company and both Philip and I decided together that certain characteristics seem to repeat, leading to a certain nightmare quality within the context of the way we were playing it.

Philip succeeded in providing an edit that Shaw’s estate deemed intelligently done and practical for a small ensemble of seven.

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Obviously this Joan won’t be for everyone.

We kept all the medieval sayings despite the fact that people use phones and iPads in our production. But the essential politics seems the same to me as it was in the 14th century or even the early part of the 20th century when Shaw wrote it. The play is based on the premise that there are no heroes or villains and that Joan’s opponents were reasonable men. It is also, as Eric Bentley once said, about the individual and the collective: the threat Joan poses is as an individual taking on the feudal aristocracy and the established Church. This threat or act of rebellion by the individual towards the collective shows no sign of disappearing. We all need our heroes.

Jimmy Fay August 2016

Credits

CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE) ROBERT / LE HIRE / CAUCHON POLLY / DUNOIS / LADVENU JOAN LA TREMOUILLE / DE STOGUMBER ARCHBISHOP / INQUISITOR BLUEBEARD / WARWICK DAUPHIN / D’ESTIVET Ensemble

ALAN McKEE ABIGAIL McGIBBON LISA DWYER HOGG RORY NOLAN PHILIP O’SULLIVAN TONY FLYNN KEVIN TRAINOR Eimear Fearon

CREATIVE TEAM WRITER BERNARD SHAW DIRECTOR JIMMY FAY ADAPTATION PHILIP O’SULLIVAN SET & COSTUME DESIGN GRACE SMART SOUND DESIGN CONOR MITCHELL LIGHTING DESIGN CIARAN BAGNALL Lighting Design Assistant Michael Harpur Movement Director Oona Doherty Costume Maker Una Hickey Costume Assistant Niamh Kearney Hair and Make-Up Orlaith Walsh PRODUCTION TEAM PRODUCTION MANAGER TECHNICAL MANGER TECHNICIAN SET BUILDER SCENIC ARTIST CARPENTER CASTING COMPANY STAGE MANAGER DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER STAGE MANAGEMENT INTERN WARDROBE SUPERVISOR WARDROBE ASSISTANT

ALAN McCRACKEN KEITH GINTY Damian Cox PHILIP GOSS Christina Hunter NOEL WOODS CLARE GAULT KATE MILLER AIMEE YATES STEPHEN DIX STEPHANIE DALE ENDA KENNY ERIN CHARTERIS

THE LYRIC THEATRE WOULD LIKE TO THANK BELFAST BUILDINGS PRESERVATION TRUST, SHANE QUINN, RYAN CROWN, ABIGAIL FORAN, Hillmount Garden Centre, Tipperary Water, Eamonn Rice, Woodlawn Garden Centre, Stuart Kirker (Suspended Ceiling Supplies), Gwen Malone Stenography, PSNI THERE WILL BE AN INTERVAL OF 20 MINUTES AFTER ACT 1

10 Sept – 8 Oct 2016

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Designing St. Joan It was an honour to even get through to the interview stage of the Linbury prize and to meet Jimmy Fay and Ciaran McAuley, there interviewing for the Lyric Belfast. I cannot remember clearly what we discussed, but I know that there was a considerable amount of laughing.

The first trip to Belfast was a bit of a whirlwind: the Lyric had put us up in a hotel round the corner, and booked our flights – Frankie (one of my fellow Linbury finalists) and I were rock stars. Jabbering away on the plane and drinking juice cartons like there was no tomorrow, we were silenced when we got to the theatre. Red brick and polished concrete, wooden slats and tall windows, a café looking out over the river Lagan, angles angles angles.

Safe to say if you have not seen that handsome theatre, the very least you should do is google it.

After some Guinness and good craic (I’m practically a local, see?) it was back to London, heads bulging with ground-plans and fly floors, removable floor staging and all the endless possibilities that come with brand spanking new state of the art theatres. And to Joan, like a new and needy partner, I had to find the time around other work to spend lavishing her with attention. I was assisting all day, and then staying up late at night, scrolling Pinterest, to keep her happy.

with Joan; firstly I learnt (please do not judge my naivety, I am in fact 12 years old, and it’s hard to keep abreast with the historical context of scripts when I have maths homework to do and Peppa Pig to watch) that it is a big metaphor for the Easter Rising. It felt quite remarkable to be tackling a text with such weight in the area it is about. Secondly I realised I knew Joan. I’d seen her on street corners in Camden yelling that Jesus was coming, and trying to our save souls. I’d seen her kicking off in a Starbucks that was throwing old food away instead of giving it to the hungry. I’d seen her in celeb interviews, in dead-eyed, drug addicted, truly talented people; Amy Winehouse or Alexander McQueen, being pushed away from their work and forced to play the fame game. She was on telly last year fighting patriarchy in Russia, her political message scrawled on her breasts. She’d asked me for change once in Soho. She went to my school.

Then I stumbled across that image of Sinead O’Connor ripping up a photo of the Pope, and we were off.

Grace Smart Set & Costume Designer Winner of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design, 2015

This went on for a few months, flitting back and forth to Belfast to meet Jimmy, or meeting him in the Foyles café by Tottenham Court Road, where I would present him with little sketches of men in suits, office interiors, and Sinead’s latest tattoo, that would set him off, waxing lyrical about the context and meaning and powerful moments.

Eventually we had a cohesive concept and world.

The thing I’ve discovered about designing such well-worn and recognisable shows is that it’s hard to know where boring clichés stop, and the necessary images begin. Waiting for Godot has to have a tree, right? Malvolio will at some point don yellow stockings, yeah? Stanley will always yell “Stella!” up a beautiful ironwork staircase. It’s necessary for the story telling. And most of the time these things are delicious, like when someone in a film says the name of the film. But occasionally, if done too keenly or with too much self-awareness, you take a second to appreciate their attempt to follow in the long tradition of doing this show, and that can be distracting… like when someone in a film says the name of the film. This was the fear with my girl Saint Joan. That recognisable image of her that has undoubtedly already jumped into your head, was that night striding around in mine… on a horse, with a sword, and beautiful pixie cropped hair. Already iconic, PLUS so recently captured perfectly in the National’s 2007 production with Anne-Marie Duff! Designed

by Rae Smith! Did I mention it was at the National!

On reading the script though I realised my “in”

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The 2015 Linbury Prize for Stage Design This biennial prize, the most important of its kind in the UK, brings together the best of emerging designers with professional theatre, dance and opera companies.

In conjunction with the British Council a further winner, Minglu Wang (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), will design a production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale in Ukraine this year.

The four winners of each competition receive a cash prize together with a professional commission to design a production for a major company. Companies that have collaborated with the Linbury Prize in recent years include Birmingham Opera, Headlong, National Theatre of Scotland, Lyric Hammersmith and Scottish Dance Theatre.

The Linbury Prize for Stage Design is funded entirely by the Linbury Trust, a charitable trust founded in 1973 by Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG (John Sainsbury), and his wife Anya, Lady Sainsbury, CBE, the former ballerina Anya Linden. The name ‘Linbury’ is thus derived from the names Linden and Sainsbury.

The latest winner of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design is Grace Smart, whose winning design for St. Joan is being produced at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.

For more information about the Linbury Trust, please visit linburytrust.org.uk

The 12 finalists were given the opportunity to work with four production companies, and four of the 12 won a commission to realise their designs with the participating companies: Philippa Brocklehurst (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), A Passage to India at the Nuffield, Southampton.

Camilla Clarke (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Human Animals at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

Jen McGinley (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Autumn at the Traverse, Edinburgh.

Grace Smart (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts), St. Joan at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.

bernard and me

The prize is supported by a group of Advocates, all eminent figures in the theatre world who endorse the Linbury Prize’s aims; Mark Baldwin, Simon Russell Beale CBE, Sue Blane MBE, Edward Bond, Matthew Bourne OBE, Christopher Bruce CBE, Alison Chitty OBE, Bob Crowley, Stephen Daldry CBE, Siobhan Davies CBE, Sir Anthony Dowell CBE, Sir Richard Eyre CBE, Rupert Goold, Sir David Hare, Tim Hatley, Prof Pamela Howard, David Hockney CH RA OM, Stuart Hopps, Richard Hudson, Nicholas Hytner, Richard Jones, Ralph Koltai CBE RDI, David Lan, John Macfarlane, Geoffrey Marsh, Jonathan Mills, John Napier, Sir Trevor Nunn CBE, Timothy O’Brien, Alistair Spalding CBE, Sir John Tusa, Anthony Ward, Nicholas Wright.

Brian Friel said to me, just the once mind you: “Do you know what it is Philip, but I think I’ve written too much.” Classic Friel impishness, a challenge, a tilt if you will.

Would Shaw have ever thought or said that? Time to fantasise or maybe time travel. My Study at home, seed cake and Earl Grey for him and no objection to my Galloises and glass of something from the Luberon for me. An omen. Positive. But that reputation! Scary iconoclast, frondeur, provocateursupreme (can’t you just imagine those tweets), angular, arch, piercing, waspish, anti-establishment right royal pain in the ass. Not a bit of it. Two Dubliners together, at ease. A twinkle. Sharing a visceral contempt for tyranny, major or petty. And actors know a bit about tyranny, petty or otherwise.

I listen, I study, I pose questions, I sit still and admire the cut of the home-spun wool suit and plus-fours, one long lean leg crookedly but still elegantly crossed over t’other. And brogues, both of us, accentedly at least. I find myself musing about “isms”. In Friel’s Making History, I could relish two. Nationalism and Colonialism. Enough of a stage debate for me there. And how many can you find in St. Joan, I’m teased. Around twenty two, I offer. List some. I’m teased again. Sexism, racism, Imperialism, Catholicism, Protestantism, fanaticism, fascism, militarism, sectarianism, fundamentalism, secularism, triumphalism, nationalism...enough!

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You’ve read my play. Tell me, is your twenty-first century a great improvement on my nineteenth and twentieth? Rhetorical. Quid pro quo Bernard?

A very deep breath: it’s this. Tell me, do you ever think you may have written too much? A very large and determined, if confused, bumblebee hits my study window. We’re both startled. He’s gone, for now. But his Joan, she has not vanished.

Philip O’Sullivan.

Lyric Theatre Belfast, 2016

“He’s gone, for now.

But his Joan, she has not vanished”

CREATIVE TEAM Biographies Bernard Shaw Author

Jimmy Fay Director

Grace Smart Set & Costume Design

Conor Mitchell Sound Design

Ciaran Bagnall Lighting Design

Oona Doherty Movement Director

Born in Dublin in 1856, Bernard Shaw (he didn’t use his given name George, and insisted that others similarly ignored it) was one of the English language’s most important playwrights, responsible for major works including Man and Superman (1902) and Pygmalion (1912), as well as Saint Joan (1923). Shaw was also an influential music and theatre critic, as well as being the recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Jimmy is the Executive Producer of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, where he has directed productions of Here Comes the Night by Rosemary Jenkinson, Pentecost by Stewart Parker, Mixed Marriage by St John Ervine and True West by Sam Shepard.

Grace is a London-based Set and Costume Designer who trained at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, graduating with a First Class BA (Hons) in Theatre Design in 2014.

She went on to be awarded the overall Winner of the 2015 Linbury Prize for young designers, and this work was featured in an exhibition at the National Theatre at the end of last year.

Conor Mitchell is a composer and musical-dramatist from Northern Ireland. He is the recipient of the 2016 Arts Council Northern Ireland Major Individual Artist’s Award and is currently working on his body of symphonic work and Concertino for Flute.

Lyric Theatre Lighting Design: Pentecost, Philadephia, Here I come!, The Little Prince and Pump Girl.

Lighting and Set Design: White Star of the North.

Oona studied at London School of Contempoary Dance, University of Ulster and LABAN London, and has a BA Honours and Post Graduate in Contemporary Dance Studies.

Recent lighting designs include: On Corporation Street, Angel Meadow (HOME, Manchester); Sunder (ANU, Dublin); After Miss Julie (Project Arts Center); The Pillowman (Gaiety); Perservance Drive (Bush Theatre); A Taste of Honey (Hull Truck Theatre, National Tour); Quartet for 15 Chairs (Maiden Voyage Dance, MAC); Wanted! Robin Hood, Arabian Nights (Lowry); Much Ado about Nothing (RSC & Noel Coward Theatre); Robin Hood, Macbeth, Wizard of Oz, Sweeney Todd, Romeo & Juliet, East is East (Octagon Theatre, Bolton).

She has been creating, collaborating, and touring Dance Theatre internationally since 2010 with companies such as TRASH Netherlands, Abbattoir Ferme Belgium, Veronika Riz Italy, Emma Martin /United Fall Ireland, Enda Walsh UK/IE.

A committed socialist who served on the Executive Committee of the Fabian Society and helped write the society’s original manifesto, Shaw’s interest in the plight of the working class is reflected in his creative work, most famously in the Pygmalion character of Eliza Doolittle, immortalized by Julie Andrews in the 1956 Broadway hit My Fair Lady, and by Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film adaptation of the same name (Shaw himself won an Academy Award for an earlier, 1938 screenplay of Pygmalion, and remains the only person ever to have been awarded both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize).

A close friend of both Seán O’Casey and W.B. Yeats, Shaw declined the opportunity to succeed J.M. Synge at the Abbey Theatre in 1909, remaining in his adopted Hertfordshire and taking dual IrishBritish nationality in 1934. Shaw continued to write into his 90s and died in 1950, with his ashes being scattered around a statue of Saint Joan in the gardens of his home.

He has been an Associate Artist of the Abbey Theatre, having also spent time there as a Staff Director, an Associate Director and as Literary Director. Directing work at the Abbey includes the acclaimed production of Owen McCafferty’s Quietly (also toured to Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013 and the Irish Rep, New York 2016), The Risen People, The Government Inspector, Curse of the Starving Class, Macbeth, The Playboy of the Western World, Ages of the Moon, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Seafarer, Saved, The School for Scandal, Howie the Rookie, True West, Henry IV, The Muesli Belt, At Swim-Two-Birds, Melonfarmer and The Papar.

In New York he directed the world premiere production of Sam Shepard’s play Ages of the Moon starring Stephen Rea at the Atlantic Theatre.

Jimmy created and established the Dublin Fringe festival, now in its 21st year. He was Artistic Director of one of Dublin’s most popular independent theatre companies Bedrock Productions from 1993 -2009. Directing credits there include the Irish premiers of internationally vibrant new plays such as This Is Our Youth, Roberto Zucco, Blasted, Night Just Before The Forest, Quay West and Faraway.

Theatre design credits include Here Comes the Night (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Bar Mitzvah Boy (The Gatehouse, London); A Doll’s House (Dissolve theatre, The Space); Object Love (Dissolve theatre, Vault Festival); The Pier (Oxford Playhouse); The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Sisters on Hope Street (Paul McCartney Auditorium, Liverpool); I Love You Because (Unity Theatre, Liverpool); 100 Seel Street (Alligator Club, Site Specific) and Fuggles (Little Angel Theatre).

Grace has also worked as an Assistant Designer on numerous West End and National productions, including Our Country’s Good (Olivier Theatre, The National); Splendour (Donmar Warehouse); Guys and Dolls (Savoy Theatre, Phoenix Theatre and UK Tour); Single Spies (UK Tour); White Whale (Slung Low, Site Specific); McQueen (St. James Theatre and Theatre Royal, Haymarket) and 7 Brides for 7 Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).

Recent scores include his Concerto for Flute and Winds, his Cultural Olympiad opera Our Day (NI Opera), the children’s opera The Musician (national tour), the choral work Shadowtime (Royal Festival Hall), Requiem for the Disappeared (Spark Opera), the sinfonietta 20: Ceasefire, and his Queer Cabaret Songs in celebration of Britten’s 100th birthday (Aldeburgh Music). He and Mark Ravenhill’s award winning song cycle Ten Plagues (Royal Court, Traverse Theatre) was recently revived at Wilton’s Music Hall, London, performed again by Marc Almond. A reworking of his 2003 musical-theatre piece Group! has just premiered in Ireland, directed by the composer. Mitchell is currently artist-in-residence at the MAC, Belfast, associate artist of the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff and artistic director of the new music-theatre collective The Belfast Ensemble.

In 2007 he was invited to curate an innovative and successful theatre programme for the prestigious Kilkenny Arts Festival.

He has worked as director with Landmark productions on the hugely commercially successful productions of Breaking Dad, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place and The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger all by Paul Howard.

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Recent lighting and set designs include: Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Singin in the Rain (UK Tour); Sleeping Beauty (Hull Truck); The Train, Digging for Fire (Project Arts Center); Scorch, The God of Carnage, Lally the Scut, Unhome, Planet Belfast, Villa, Discurso, Tejas Verdes, I am my own Wife (MAC); Othello (RSC); Two/ Two 2, A View from the Bridge, Love Story, Twelfth Night, Piaf, The Glass Menagerie, Tull, Of Mice and Men, Habeas Corpus, Secret Thoughts, Oleanna (Octagon Theatre, Bolton); Conquest of Happiness (European Tour); Shoot the Crow (Grand Opera House); Snookered (Bush Theatre); The Killing of Sister George (Arts Theatre); Slattery’s Sago Saga (DTF); Swampoodle (Uline Arena, Washington DC); Treemonisha (Pegasus Opera, UK National Tour); A Slight Ache and Landscape (Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre).

She is currently touring choreographies include Hope Hunt, Lazarus, Arlington.

Oona has been teaching Dance Theatre workshops in Europe since 2012. She is an ISSAC Associate Artist, and in 2016 she became The MAC Belfast HATCH Artist and Prime Cut Productions REVEAL Artist.

cast Biographies

Lisa Dwyer Hogg Joan

Tony Flynn Warwick / Bluebeard

Abigail McGibbon Polly / Dunois / Ladvenu

Alan McKee Robert / Le Hire / Cauchon

Rory Nolan La Tremouille / De Stogumber

Philip O’Sullivan Archbishop / Inquisitor, and script adaptation

Theatre includes: Signatories (Verdant Productions / Kilmainham Gaol); After Miss Julie, Blackbird, Scarborough (Prime Cut Theatre Company); Liola (National Theatre, London); Heartbreak House, Tales of Ballycumber (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Importance of Being Earnest, The Mariner (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Dunsinane (National Theatre of Scotland / Swan Theatre Stratford and Royal Shakespeare Company / Hampstead Theatre); Dallas Sweetman (Paines Plough); Begin Again (Old Vic / 24 Hour Plays); Loyal Women (Royal Court Theatre); Pete and Me (New End, Hampstead); Many Loves (Sandis / Lillian Bayliss).

Previous appearances at the Lyric include: The Seafarer (co-production with Perth Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing and Miss Julie. Other theatre includes: Witness For The Prosecution (Dundee Rep); Romeo and Juliet (Sherman Cymru); Alice in Funderland, The Plough and The Stars , Living Quarters, Sisters and Brothers, Toupees and Snare Drums, At Swim Two Birds, Melonfarmer, The Papar, Respond, Tarry Flynn and The Hostage (Abbey Theatre); Lally the Scut and Duke of Hope (Tinderbox); Twelfth Night (Perth Theatre); Over The Bridge (Greenshoot Productions); Arguments For Terrorism (Oran Mor Glasgow); The Winners (Ransom); Animal Farm (Theatre Royal Bath); The Threepenny Opera and Faustus (Bruiser); Making History, Macbeth and Amadeus (Ouroboros Theatre); Massacre at Paris and Early Morning (Bedrock Theatre); The Queen and Peacock (Red Kettle); Streetcar and Car Show (Corn Exchange); The Blue Macushla (Druid); Mademoiselle Flic Flac (Pan Pan); Torch Song Trilogy (Muted Cupid) and Jaques Brel is Alive and Well…(Andrews Lane Theatre).

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

Alan is from Coleraine and lives in Belfast with his wife and four children. He made his professional debut in the Lyric in 1991 and has appeared in many productions including; The Nativity…What the Donkey Saw, Bah Humbug, Paradise, Civilisation Game.

Rory was most recently seen as Pozzo in Druid’s production of Waiting For Godot. Other recent work includes Northern Star with Rough Magic, Chekhov’s First Play with Dead Centre, as Ross O’Carroll Kelly in Breaking Dad for Landmark, as Falstaff in DruidShakepeare with Druid and as Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of being Earnest at the Gate Theatre, Dublin.

This is Philip’s first appearance at the Lyric. He started his career as a member of the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre, aged 17, appearing in over 70 plays there, 23 of which were world premiers. Some favourites include: The Hidden Curriculum, Hamlet, The Glass Menagerie, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Underneath The Lintel, Making History, Amadeus, Tartuffe, The Goat or Who is Sylvia, A Delicate Balance. Since the mid 80s, he has pursued a freelance career working with most of the leading theatre companies in Ireland, most recently and fruitfully with Jimmy Fay and Landmark Productions in the phenomenally successful Ross O’Carroll Kelly trilogy, Last Days of the Celtic Tiger, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place and Breaking Dad.

Film / Television includes: Across the Universe (Revolution); Almost Adult (Parallax Films); The Fall, A Year of Greater Love, Waking The Dead, Best: His Mother’s Son, Casualty (BBC); The Royal (Yorkshire TV); Trial and Retribution, Commander (La Plante Productions); The Bill, Fallen (Thames TV); Wire in the Blood III (Coastal Productions); Brookside (Mersey Television).

TV and film includes: The Fall 2, Small Island, The Ambassador and Pulling Moves (BBC); Chronicles of Frankenstein (ITV Encore); The Tudors (Showtime); Legend, Proof II and DDU (RTE); Bloody Sunday (January Films); The General (Merlin Films) and Some Mother’s Son (Septon Productions).

Other theatrical credits include: Mr. and Mrs. Laughton (Sherman Cymru/ Oran Mor), Everything Between Us with Rough Magic (Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress), Hoffman with CahootsNI/ The Mac, Nivelli’s War (Cahoots NI), Planet Belfast (Tinderbox), Eternally Scrooged (Theatre at The Mill), The Odd Couple - Female Version (Perth Theatre), The End Of Hope, The End Of Desire (Oran Mor), A Spell of Cold Weather (Cahoots NI), Fly Me To The Moon (Paines Plough/Oran Mor), Transparency, The Winners and The Early Bird (Ransom Productions), A Christmas Carol (Manchester Library), Three Women (C21), 1 in 5 (Kabosh), Strike (ICTU), Dumped, Convictions and Revenge (Tinderbox), The Playboy of The Western World and The Colleen Bawn (Big Telly), Gulliver’s Travels and Spring Awakening (Galloglass), Teechers (ArtsTheatre), The Vinegar Fly (Charabanc), Factory Girls and The Gingerbread Mix Up (Bickerstaffe).

Film Credits include H3 and The Attendant.

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Other theatre includes; St. Mungo’s Luganulk (Grimes & McKee) The History of the Troubles (Accordin’ to my Da) (Mac Productions), The History of the Peace (Accordin’ to my Ma) (GBL), Caught Red Handed, Language Roulette, Convictions, The Duke of Hope, Lally the Scut (all for Tinderbox Theatre Company), Over the Bridge (Green Shoot), Metamorphosis (Big Telly), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Dundee Rep). He recently directed Handbag Positive for Joseph Rea Productions and in the New Year will direct the company’s next production I’ll Tell My Ma, a one woman show starring Christina Nelson.

Film and TV work includes; The Craic, The Tractor Show, Game of Thrones, The Secret, Jack Taylor, Divorcing Jack, Motormouth, Eureka Street.

Alan is a member of the Northern Ireland Committee of Equity. He has travelled to Kosovo and South Africa as an associate artist with The Global Arts Corps; an international company of theatre practitioners committed to giving a voice to people from conflict/post conflict societies.

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Rory has worked extensively in Irish theatre, most especially with The Abbey and Gate Theatres and with Rough Magic and Druid theatre companies.

Film and television include Charlie, A Thousand Times Goodnight, Trouble In Paradise, Dare to be Wild, Nothing Personal, The Baker Street Irregulars and Fair City.

Some Film and TV credits include Sean, Teresa’s Wedding, The Burke Enigma, Leave it to Mrs. O’Brien, Eagles & Trumpets, Glenroe, Fair City (RTE). Showbands 1 and 2 (RTE/ Parallel), Pure Mule 1 and 2 (RTE), The Ambassador, Anytime Now, The American, Veronica Guerin, The Return, Royston Vesey, The Baby War, Studs, Tiger’s Tail, Anner House, The Tudors Series 1 and 2, Albert Nobbs. Philip has just completed four series of Vikings as the particularly nasty Bishop Edmund.

cast Biographies

SUPPORTING CAST Principal Funder:

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The Lyric is also generously supported by:

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Kevin Trainor Dauphin / D’Estivet Kevin was born in Newry, and trained ay RADA.

Lyric Theatre

Theatre includes: title role in Doctor Faustus (Glasgow Citz/West Yorkshire Playhouse); Playboy of the Western World, Six Degrees of Separation (Old Vic); Bent (West End); Eric LaRue, Solstice, Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors (RSC/West End); Lost Monsters, Canary (Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse); 2000 Feet Away (Bush); The Lovers of Viorne (Frontier); Love’s Labours Lost (Rose, Kingston); Titanic (MAC, Belfast).

Board of Directors Sir Bruce Robinson (Chairman) Stephen Douds (Vice Chair) Phil Cheevers Nicky Dunn Henry Elvin Patricia McBride Sid McDowell Dr Mark Phelan Patron Liam Neeson OBE

Film includes: Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy and Make It New, John/ Delorean (dir. Duncan Campbell).

TV includes: John Adams (HBO); The Cafe (Sky1); Utopia, London Irish (C4); Endeavour, Vera (ITV); The Catherine Tate Show (BBC).

Artist in Residence Duke Special Executive Producer Jimmy Fay APPRENTICE PRODUCER BRONAGH McFEELY

In 2010 Kevin received the Liverpool Daily Post Best Actor Award for his performance as Billy in Jonathan Harvey’s play Canary.

Chief Operating Officer Ciaran McAuley Head of Marketing and Communications Simon Goldrick Marketing Officers Ryan Crown Aisling McKenna

DESIGN: www.darraghneely.com

Company Stage Manager Kate Miller

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Deputy Stage Managers Tracey Lindsay Aimee Yates Assistant Stage Managers Louise Bryans Stephen Dix

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Production & Technical Manager Keith Ginty Technicians Damian Cox IAN VENNARD Tighearnan O’Neill

Duty Managers LAURA HAMILL Marina Hampton Barry Leonard Sarah Mulgrew MAITRE D’ CLIFF HYLANDS

Wardrobe Supervisor ENDA KENNy

Box Office Supervisor Emily White

Wardrobe Assistant Erin Charteris

Box Office Deputy Supervisor Paul McCaffrey

Administration Manager Clare Gault

Catering Manager Joe Walsh

Administration Assistant Cat Rice

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BOX OFFICE STAFF Pamela Armstrong Lauren Bailey Luke Bannon MICHAEL BINGHAM Carla Bryson PAULA RUTH CARSON-LEWIS Rebecca Cooney Emmett Costello Stephen Coulter Andrew Cowan Ellison Craig Gary Crossan Alacoque Davey Catherine Davison Amanda Doherty Scott English Darren Franklin Catriona Grant Chris Grant Adele Gribbon Peter Hackett SIMON HALL Laura Hamill Marina Hampton

Finance Manager DEIRDRE FERGUSON Finance Assistant MICHEAL MEEGAN Housekeeping Debbie Duff Amanda Richards Samantha Walker Head of Creative Learning Philip Crawford Creative Learning Co-Ordinator Niki Doherty Creative Learning Assistant Pauline McKay Customer Service Manager Ciara McCann

David Hanna Cathal Henry Teresa Hill Erin Hoey Aaron Hughes NIAMH JOHNSON Megan Keenan Gerard Kelly JULIE LAMBERTON Helen Lavery Janette Loughlin Megan Magill Colm McAteer AOIFE McCLOSKEY Collette McEntee Sarah McErlain Patricia McGreevy Ashlene McGurk Colin McHugh Mary McManus Cathan McRoberts Catherine Moore DONAL MORGAN EDITE MUCENIECE Seamus O’Hara Bernadette Owens Patrick Quinn Bobbi Rai Purdy HAYLEY RUSSELL Michael Shotton Ciara Ward Susannah Wilson Volunteers Jordyn Cummings BERNADETTE FOX Jennifer Kerr Jake Kieran Alana McAlister Melissa Patty