Druid Theatre Company has announced a summer double bill to mark its 50th anniversary this summer – a presentation featuring both JM Synge’s Riders to the Sea and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, at the Mick Lally Theatre in Galway city in July.
The double bill as part of Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) marks a focus on two strands of the company’s work: plays connected with the west of Ireland, and its exploration of Shakespeare. Another strand of Druid’s role will be seen in the transfer of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame to New York’s Irish Arts Center in October, following its acclaimed run at GIAF last year.
Riders to the Sea is a short one-act play and Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, so the double bill will likely run just more than three hours including intervals, making for a potentially intense and intriguing combination in an intimate space. The very small Mick Lally Theatre, named after one of Druid Theatre’s three founders, was the company’s first home, on Druid Lane in Galway. Druid started in the summer of 1975, led by director Garry Hynes, actor Marie Mullen and the late actor Mick Lally.
Thirty years later, in 2005, Druid presented the formative play cycle DruidSynge, which included Riders to the Sea, and Hynes and Mullen (both Tony Award winners) are now returning to the play by one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights for this new production, a “short one-act of pure theatre ... a swirling tour de force of Celtic paganism, the earthly struggles of life, and the desperate stretch of humanity towards the heavens”.
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For Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedies, Druid promises a visceral and Irish perspective, directed by Hynes, with Marty Rea as Macbeth and Mullen as Lady Macbeth. It follows the company’s work on its internationally acclaimed DruidShakespeare cycle (2015) and Richard III (2018).
“It’s not lost on me how lucky we all are at Druid to have made it to this milestone,” said Hynes. “When Marie, Mick and I founded the company in 1975, we could never have imagined reaching our 50th anniversary. There are so many people to thank for helping us along the way but I’d like to especially thank the people of Galway for their belief in us since day one, as well as our audiences far and wide – because it’s not theatre until someone’s watching.”
She paid tribute to “the Druids who have left us” including Lally, former artistic director Maelíosa Stafford and “former general manager and my dear brother Jerome Hynes”.
Tickets will be sold for the double bill only for the Galway run during July’s arts festival. In the autumn, Druid will transfer Macbeth to the Gaiety Theatre for Dublin Theatre Festival in September/October.
The original cast of Endgame – Bosco Hogan, Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, Rory Nolan – return for its run in Manhattan (October-November). Druid has toured to America since 1986, including a 1998 Broadway run of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, which won four Tony Awards.
Founded 50 years ago as Ireland’s first professional theatre company outside Dublin, the new Druid company’s first presentation was a three-day season in Galway’s Jesuit Hall in July 1975: JM Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, Kevin Laffan’s It’s a Two-Foot-Six-Inches-Above-the-Ground World and Brian Friel’s The Loves of Cass McGuire. It went on to become an acclaimed touring theatre company anchored in the west of Ireland.
Druid’s focus on the future continues with its artist development initiatives: the Marie Mullen Bursary for women working in theatre; its FUEL artist residency; annual Druid Debuts play readings; a Galway writing group led by playwright Meadhbh McHugh; and a partnership with University of Galway, including Druid Academy, for drama students.
Other celebrations of its 50th anniversary year include two books, a new history of Druid Theatre by Patrick Lonergan (Lilliput Press) and Druid Theatre 1975-2025: 50 Years of New Irish Plays, edited by Barry Houlihan, Patrick Lonergan and Máiréad Ní Chróinín (Methuen/Bloomsbury Publishing), plus a University of Galway symposium (October 31st- November 2nd), Druid Theatre: Performance, Place, People.
Noting the 50th anniversary, President Michael D Higgins acknowledged “Druid’s immeasurable contributions to Irish theatre, to the artistic life of our nation, and indeed the cultural heritage that defines us as a people.”
He thanked all those who have shaped the company.
“May you continue to shine brightly in the decades ahead, carrying forward that wonderful spirit of innovation, excellence, and artistic courage that has defined Druid from its inception,” he added.
