New plays by Gerard Stembridge and Marina Carr are among the highlights of the Abbey's programme for this year, which was launched yesterday. Stembridge's That Was Then, which will play in the early summer, is about "the never-ending, halting tuneless dance between the Irish and the English, both as it was, as it now is and as it may always be," according to Ben Barnes, the Abbey's artistic director.
The play centres on two dinner parties: Noel, an Irish builder and "paid-up golden- circle member", and his anxious wife, May, invite a "dodgy but plausible" English couple for dinner. A year later, Julian and June are forced to issue a return invitation. Although there have been changes in their relationships, "it is hard", said Barnes yesterday, "to know if they are for the better or for the worse".
Stembridge will direct the show himself, design will be by Es Devlin, lighting will be by Paul Keogan and the cast will include Stephen Brennan, Nick Dunning and Julia Lane, Barnes's wife.
Carr's play, which will be performed during the Dublin Theatre Festival, is described as dark and challenging. It wouldn't be Carr if it wasn't, would it? The midlands setting and the ghosts from the past are what we expect, but Ariel seems to have more contemporary relevance than is usual with Carr. Fermoy Fitzgerald "will sacrifice everything in his pursuit of political power - even the lives of his wife and children".
It seems we are finally entering the Jacobean phase of Irish theatre - a phase the political system has been in for two decades. The play will be directed by Conall Morrison, who is no stranger to wrestling with dark powers in drama, as witnessed by his production of Tom Murphy's A Whistle In The Dark last year.
Bernard Farrell's Lovers At Versailles will go up on March 5th. Directed by Mark Lambert, it is described as "another rich slice of contemporary life". The play takes place in the aftermath of the death of Stephen Sullivan, a shopkeeper whose sudden passing leaves three women to confront their lives: his widow, who always suspected he had something to hide; his "self-serving" daughter Isobel; and Anna, Stephen's favourite daughter, who is offered a second chance at happiness - "at a price". The cast includes Tina Kellegher, Barbara Brennan and Vinnie McCabe.
The playwright, screen-writer and director Joe O'Byrne is finally making his National Theatre debut after the frustrating experience, many years ago, of having had a play accepted by the Abbey which never saw the light of day. En Suite, which opens at the Peacock on March 20th, directed by David Parnell, is set in Evelyn Dwyer's unconventional bed and breakfast. One daughter is about to have a baby by a long-departed Italian tourist; another is "indulging in a life of prayer and lesbian love". Into this maelstrom steps Evelyn's brother, Owen, back from Las Vegas. He has come home to die, but nothing will do him before he snuffs it but to have an old secret "dusted down".
It's good, too, to see Aidan Matthews's name again; his Communion will play at the Peacock in the late spring. It contains some of the leitmotifs of this year's National Theatre season: a widowed mother and terminal illness. This mother has the worst deal of all, with both sons seriously ill, one with a brain tumour, the other with manic depression. "Each brother has been the other's role model and rival from the beginning, and each exists within a cultural contest which privileges one form of suffering and fears the other." In a wider sense, Matthews is getting at the question of how, if the gods themselves have predeceased us, we may imagine our passing. The play will be directed by Martin Drury, who left the Ark in such seaworthy shape last year.
The lack of action by the Government about the Abbey's need for a new building means there is no question of the theatre being anywhere but in its old building, on Lower Abbey Street, for its centenary, next year. Plans are afoot to celebrate with a touring programme, which will include a new production of Sean O'Casey's The Plough And The Stars, directed by Barnes, for which dates in the US and Canada are already lined up. Another dip into the repertoire is Hugh Leonard's Da, directed by Patrick Mason, to go up in the Abbey in the summer. Revivals that will bring in the dosh over the summer include those of Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire, directed by Murphy himself, and of The Playboy Of The Western World, directed by Niall Henry.
The new artistic director of the Peacock, Ali Curran, took the microphone from Barnes to announce a "Peacock Partnership" with Corn Exchange during the theatre festival - work she described as the basis for the future of the Peacock. It will be directed by Annie Ryan, the artistic director of this commedia dell'arte-influenced production company.
Barnes also announced that the National Theatre's literary department is working on projects with 25 other writers, including Ursula Rani Sarma, the winner of an Irish Times/ESB bursary; Eugene O'Brien, this year's winner of the Irish Times/ESB best-play award; Gary Mitchell; and Pom Boyd. More details from www.abbeytheatre.ie
Edited by Victoria White
