...andfivetolook out for in 2018
A psychological puzzle… Cillian Murphy… and the original fake news, all coming to a stage near you
The Approach
A new play written and directed by Mark O’Rowe, described as ‘a quietly devastating tragedy and a psychological puzzle’ played by three of our finest performers, Derbhle Crotty, Cathy Belton and Aisling O’Sullivan. Three women have three conversations. When the details of what they share begin to diverge, we are faced with a subtle game of survival. This is Mark O’Rowe’s first play since Our Few And Evil Days (Abbey 2014), following his great successes with Howie The Rookie and his adaptation of the Shakespeare history plays for Druid. Project Arts Centre, Feb 1-24; Everyman, Cork, Feb 27-March 3.
Swan Lake/Loch Na hEala
A revival of Michael KeeganDolan’s magical adaptation of one of the world’s great love stories, set in the Irish midlands, where mythology and the modern world meet in a production interweaving storytelling, song and live music, with the music of Dublin-based band Slow Moving Clouds combining Nordic and traditional Irish music. Performed by 13 top-class performers, including actor Mikel Murfi.
Abbey Theatre, Feb 8-17, before touring to eight counties and six other countries.
Grief Is The Thing With Feathers
This heralds the return of Cillian Murphy to the Irish stage in an adaptation by Enda Walsh of Max Porter’s novel about a widower and his young sons after the sudden death of their mother, which becomes a meditation on love, loss and living. This world premiere renews Murphy’s partnership with Walsh, after their success in Disco Pigs, Ballyturk and Misterman, and follows Murphy’s recent success in the BBC TV series Peaky Blinders. Max Porter’s novel was described by one reviewer as the ‘most exquisite little flight of a story’.
Black Box, Galway, Mar 16-24; O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin, Mar 28Apr 5
Asking For It
The novel by Louise O’Neill, pictured, adapted for the stage by Meadhbh McHugh, is a sickening examination of society’s treatment of women and the concept of rape culture. It will be a large-scale, technically ambitious production by Landmark and The Everyman, co-commissioned by the Abbey. Asking For It won Book of the Year at Irish Book Awards in 2015, and was 52 weeks on the Irish top 10 best-seller list. Everyman, Cork Mid-Summer Festival, 11-23 June ; Abbey 9-24 Nov.
Deirdre Kinahan tackles the same subject in her play Rathmines Road (Abbey, Oct 9-27 Oct) that poses the question of how and when we take responsibility.
Double Cross
Thomas Kilroy’s Double Cross pitches two Irishmen against each other, both of them concealing their original nationalities in the propaganda battle of World War II. Brendan Bracken was the British Minister for Information, William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw, broadcast on behalf of Nazi Germany. Kilroy wanted to explore how two men concealing their origins might dramatise the deformities of nationalism more effectively than patriots. With the reemergence of nationalism and the concept of ‘fake news’ it might be an interesting revival. Abbey Oct 31 – Nov 10.