Peter Gill, playwright and theatre director
Scenes from the Big Picture
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Stuart McQuarrie, Ruari Conaghan, Michelle Fairley, Ron Donachie, Eileen Pollock & Karl Johnson photo by Nobby ClarkScenes from the Big Picture ppScenes from the Big Picture

by Owen McCafferty

Royal National Theatre

Cottesloe Theatre, 10 April 2003

24 hours. 20 characters. 40 scenes. Belfast City. An urban story

It's a joke that's all — stick yer finger in yer coat pocket — give it some verbals — then on yer way out the door take yer hand out a yer pocket an wave at him — what's the problem there — he'll even find that funny himself.

Production dates: All performances are at 7:30 pm, unless otherwise indicated
Apr 2003
Wed 2 (Preview), Thu 3 (Preview), Fri 4 (Preview), Sat 5 (Preview), Mon 7 (Preview), Tue 8 (Preview), Wed 9 (Preview), Thu 10 (Press, 7:00 pm), Fri 11, Sat 12 (2:30 pm), Sat 12, Thu 17, Sat 19 (2:30 pm), Sat 19, Mon 21, Tue 22, Wed 23, Thu 24 (2:30 pm), Thu 24
May 2003
Fri 2, Sat 3 (2:30 pm), Sat 3, Mon 5, Tue 6, Wed 7 (2:30 pm), Wed 7, Wed 14, Thu 15, Fri 16, Sat 17 (2:30 pm), Sat 17
Jun 2003
Mon 9, Tue 10, Wed 11 (2:30 pm), Wed 11, Wed 18, Thu 19, Fri 20, Sat 21 (2:30 pm), Sat 21 (Final Performance)
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heartbeat and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.
George Eliot from Middlemarch (1871-72)
Grief fills the room up of my absent child.
William Shakespeare from King John (1596)
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
   What's to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty;
   Youth's a stuff will not endure.
William Shakespeare from Feste's Song, Twelfth Night (1601)
Say not, the struggle nought availeth,
   The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
   And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
   It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
   And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
   Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
   Comes silent, flooding in, the main,

And not by eastern windows only,
   When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly
   But westward, look, the land is bright.

Arthur Hugh Clough (1849)
I wrung my hands under my dark veil...
'Why are you pale, what makes you reckless?'
— Because I have made my loved one drunk
with an astringent sadness.

I'll never forget. He went out, reeling;
his mouth was twisted, desolate...
I ran downstairs, not touching the banisters,
and followed him as far as the gate.

And shouted, choking: 'I meant it all
in fun. Don't leave me, or I'll die of pain.'
He smiled at me — oh so calmly, terribly -
and said: 'Why don't you get out of the rain?'

Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) translated from the Russian by Max Hayward and Stanley Kunitz
My grief, I can see,
is deserting to you.
Paul Celan (1920-1970), from All those sleep shapes, crystalline
All that I know of her perfections now is only by memory. I remember, indeed, that about two years ago I loved her passionately; but those golden days are gone. Yet I loved her a whole half year, double the natural term of any mistress, and think in my conscience I could have held out another quarter; but then the world began to laugh at me, and a certain shame of being out of fashion seized me. At last we arrived at that point, that there was nothing left in us to make us new to one another. Yet still I set a good face upon the matter, and am infinite fond of her before company; but when we are alone, we walk like lions in a room, she one way, and I another. And we lie with our backs to each other so far distant, as if the fashion of great beds was only invented to keep husband and wife sufficiently asunder.
John Dryden from Marriage A-la-Mode (1672)
Everyone can master a grief but he that hath it.
William Shakespeare from Much Ado About Nothing (1598)
— I think it's brilliant is Belfast, it's a real top place to live. I wouldn't like to live anywhere else, honestly I wouldn't, not ever. People from outside you know, they're really surprised when they come here and find out what it's like, they really are. They think it's all bombs going off all the time, everybody shooting one another and all stuff like that. They can't believe it, the smart shops, all the things in them, the clubs, the discos, all the young people enjoying themselves. The newspapers and the television, all they ever show's bombs and buildings and fires and shootings and all stuff like that. They don't show you what a great place Belfast is. I mean look at me, I've never been shot at, I've never even heard shooting except once in a while somewhere in the distance. People should come and see for themselves. Belfast's no different from anywhere else; it's great, it is, it's really really great.
A fifteen-year-old schoolgirl quoted in Tony Parker's May the Lord in His mercy be kind to Belfast (1993)
The charm of novelty, falling little by little like a robe, revealed the eternal monotony of passion, which has always the same forms and the same language.
Gustave Flaubert from Madame Bovary (1857)
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
James Joyce from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:17
The only good which we discover in life, is something which produces an oblivion of existence.
Madame de Staël (1766-1817)
In the big city
Where the lights are low
Cold dirty ground
Where the rivers don't flow
Nothing's gonna change so throw it all away...

In the big city
Where it's hard to see the sky
And the black earth trembles when the trains go by
And the bums on the corner tell you gently
To fuck off and die.

Shane MacGowan, The Pogues, from Big City (1993)
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine
unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget
his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Proverbs 31:6-7
When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night -
A pint of plain is your only man.

When money's tight and is hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt -
A pint of plain is your only man.

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say that you need a change,
A pint of plain is your only man.

When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare -
A pint of plain is your only man.

In time of trouble and lousy strife
You have still got a darling plan,
You still can turn to a brighter life -
A pint of plain is your only man.

Flann O'Brien (1911-1966), The Workman's Friend
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in
their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions... I am distressed for thee, my
brother Jonathan: very pleasant has thou been unto me: thy love
to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the
mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
2 Samuel 1:23-7
A Drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
One of the saddest things is that the only thing a man can do for eight hours, is work. You can't eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours.
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Have I not understood then? Have I not understood what? That it is not so much the vision that counts, but the trance, the treacherous trance come to carry me off, the trance which grows and grows and grows, pushing me forward precipitously into pleasure, pleasure within me, which cannot be localised, which is not physical, essential pleasure at my very core, dragging me down like a jailer to the centre of my being, inebriating me in this cell, overthrowing me, corrupting me, dissolving me in a delirium of delight, without check, without counterweight, devoid of censure and of all possibility, an all-devouring and symphonic concupiscence whose lewd panoramas are but the corroboration and illustration of the multiple, outrageous and cerebral orgasm in whose relentless grip I am held.
Henri Michaux (1899-1984), from Mescaline
Oh won't you stay
Stay a while with your own ones
Don't ever stray
Stray so far from your own ones
'Cause the world is so cold.
Van Morrison from Irish Heartbeat (1989)
It is the fate of all of us, perhaps, to direct... our first murderous wish against our father.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Junk is the ultimate merchandise. The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the product.
William Burroughs (1914-1997)
The joys of marriage are the heaven on earth,
Life's paradise, great princess, the soul's quiet,
Sinews of concord, earthly immortality,
Eternity of pleasures.
John Ford from The Broken Heart (1633)
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas from Do not go gentle into that good night (1952)
Credits
Bop Torbett Darren Healy Theatre credits include Studs at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin, Green at the Dublin Fringe Festival and King Lear at the Tivoli Theatre. TV credits include On Home Ground and Finbar's Class. Film credits include Dead Bodies, Bloody Sunday, Disco Pigs, The General, Crush Proof and The Boxer.
Maggie Lyttle Elaine Cassidy Theatre credits include The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Garrick. TV and film credits include Watermelon, The Bay of Love and Sorrows, The Lost World, The Others, Disco Pigs, Felicia's Journey, Glenroe, The Sun, The Moon and the Stars, Mission Top Secret II: The Crown Jewels Are Missing and the short film The Stranger Within Me. She also appears in the music video The Scientist for Cold Play.
Maeve Hynes Aofie McMahon Aoife McMahon is from County Clare and attended the University of Ulster and RADA. Theatre credits include Dancing at Lughnasa at Greenwich and the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Pains of Youth at the National Theatre Studio, Andorra at the Young Vic, Pegeen Mike in Playboy of the Western World at the Liverpool Playhouse, Or/ana for Kabosh and the title role in Deirdre for the Armagh Rhymers Theatre. Film includes Random Passage, for which she was awarded the 2002 Best Actress Gemini Award (Canadian BAFTA).
Joe Hynes Patrick O'Kane Patrick O'Kane has appeared in Closing Time at the National and Shoot The Crow at the Manchester Royal Exchange, both by Owen McCafferty. Also with the NT Ensemble in Romeo and Juliet, Peer Gynt and Playboy of the Western World. He trained at Central. His theatre credits include Donny Boy, Julius Caesar, Absurd Person Singular, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love and Miss Julie for the Manchester Royal Exchange, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Lyric, Belfast, The Plough and the Stars, As the Beast Sleeps (Best Supporting Actor, Irish Times Theatre Awards), The House and Medea at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, The Playboy of the Western World, 1953, Lulu, Edward II and Sweet Bird of Youth for Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, The Life of Stuff at the Donmar Warehouse, The Grapes of Wrath and The Three Musketeers at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, The Strip and Trust at the Royal Court, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Edinburgh, Double Indemnity at Theatr Clwyd, Popcorn at Nottingham and West Yorkshire Playhouses and in the West End, Volunteers at the Gate and Macbeth at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. TV: A Safe House, Liverpool One, In the Red, A Rap at the Door, In Deep, As the Beast Sleeps and Any Time Now. Film: The Paris Express, Sunset Heights, Wonderful World, The Fishmonger, When the Sky Falls, Perdie, Octane and Rembrandt.

Sammy Lennon John Normington John Normington's theatre credits include, for the National, The Good Hope, The Winter's Tale, The Mysteries, A State of Revolution, As You Like It, Richard III, Amadeus, The Oresteia, Guys and Dolls, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Danton's Death, The American Clock, Animal Farm (and tour), and School for Scandal; The Homecoming in London and New York, The Happy Apple at the Apollo, The Fool, Revenge, Twelfth Night and Taking Stock at the Royal Court, The Deep Blue Sea at the Haymarket, The Homecoming for the Peter Hall Company at the Comedy Theatre, Our Town at the Shaftesbury Theatre, Rules of the Game at the Almeida, The Master Builder for the Peter Hall Company, West End and tour, Love for Love and Uncle Vanya at the Chichester Festival, the latter also at the Albery, Snake in the Grass at the Old Vic; and The Wars of the Roses, King Lear, Ghosts, Love's Labour's Lost and Talk of the City for the RSC and Lettice and Lovage on tour. TV: Edward VII, Upstairs Downstairs, Will Shakespeare, The Birds Fall Down, Flaxborough Chronicles, Enemy at the Door, Afternoon Off, A Day Out, The Winkler, Ibsen, Masterspy, Turtle's Progress, Blat, School Play, The Diplomatic Spy, Short Term Memory, Hold the Back Page, Yes Prime Minister, Flying Lady, My Family and Other Animals, Mary Rose, Dr Who, Nativity Blues, Inspector Morse, Poirot, Jack the Ripper, The Paradise Club, The New Statesman, In Sickness and in Health, Casualty, Minder, Her Majesty's Pleasure, Preston Front, Peak Practice, Bliss, Longitude, David Copperfield, Deceptions, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Unsuitable Job for a Woman, The Unknown Soldier, The Bill and Love in a Cold Climate. Film: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Reckoning, Inadmissible Evidence, Deathwatch, The Reckoning, Stardust, Rollerball, The Medusa Touch, The Thirty Nine Steps, Hitler's SS, A Private Function, Sakharov and Wilt.
Connie Dean Kathy Kiera Clarke Kathy Kiera Clarke was born in Belfast and is a founder member of the Marillac Theatre Company. Theatre credits include Jekyll and Hyde, Riders to the Sea, Damaged Goods and Clara Pettacci in Summit Conference at Glasgow Citizens, Borders of Paradise at the Palace Theatre Watford, Torquato Tasso at the Lyceum Edinburgh, Once a Catholic and Factory Girls at the Tricycle, Low Level Panic, Brilliant Traces and The Coronation Voyage for Prime Cut and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, a co-production between Prime Cut and the Lyric Theatre Belfast, also nominated for the NT/Ian Charleson award, and Best Actress for the title role in Medea for the Glasgow Citizens. TV includes Flash McVeigh, Jack Rosenthal's Eskimo Day, Take a Girl Like You and Head Over Heels. Film includes Last Legs, Hard Nut, Mad About Harry, The Most Fertile Man in Ireland, Francis in Bloody Sunday for which she received a Best Actress nomination at the IFTA's, and Solid Air, to be released this year.
Betty Lennon June Watson Theatre credits include The Good Hope (on tour), Our Lady of Sligo, Cardiff East, The Prince's Play, Le Cid, Rutherford & Son, Machinal, Billy Liar, Whale, Garden of England, As I Lay Dying, The Beggar's Opera, The Long Voyage Home, The World Turned Upside Down, The Passion, Lark Rise, Sir is Winning, State of Revolution and Il Campiello for the National, Kosher Harry, Sliding with Suzanne, Small Change, Over Gardens Out, Life Price, Beside Herself, Glasshouses and Saved for the Royal Court, Streetcar to Tennessee, Julius Caesar and Cato Street for the Young Vic, Blue Heart for Out of Joint, Hippolytus for the Almeida, The Ha Ha for Hampstead, Hanky Park for the Mermaid, Ballroom for Stratford East and The Wars of the Roses, The Winter's Tale and Coriolanus for the English Shakespeare Company in the UK, Europe, Australia, Asia and USA on tour. TV credits include The Key, Midsomer Murders, William and Mary, Holby City, Inspector Linley, Brotherly Love, Thursday the 12th, In a Land of Plenty, Casualty, Where the Heart Is, Berkeley Square, Kavanagh QC, Mike and Angelo, Wokenwell, Turning World, Jonathan Creek, five Plays for Today, Common as Muck, A Mug's Game, Dr Finlay, Criminal, The Bill, Prime Suspect, Inspector Morse, For the Greater Good, Capital City, Taggart, EastEnders, Tales of the Unexpected and Z Cars. Film credits include Ghost Hunter, 102 Dalmatians, Highlander IV, A Suitable Case for Treatment, The Last Yellow, The Know/edge and Bloody Kids.
Theresa Black Frances Tomelty Theatre credits include Mutabilitie for the National, Mrs Darling in Peter Pan, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC, Give me Your Answer, Do! and Dancing at Lughnasa at the Abbey Theatre Dublin, Ghosts, Doctor Heart and The Talking Dark at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Picasso's Women on tour, Semi Monde at the Lyric Shaftesbury Avenue, Katherine Howard at Chichester, The Maiden Stone at Hampstead, Blood Wedding at the Lyric Hammersmith and The Normal Heart at the Royal Court. TV credits include Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Trial and Retribution, Vanity Fair, BallyKissangel, Kavanagh QC, Casualty, Cracker, Work, Perfect Scoundrels, Spender, Boon, Inspector Morse, A Perfect Spy, Radio Pictures, The File on Jill Hatch, Bazaar and Rummage, Under the Skin, Iris in Traffic, Ruby in Rain, Juno and the Paycock, Testament of Youth, The Strangers, Blue Money and Catchpenny Twist. Film credits include High Boot Benny, The Field, Lamb, Bellman and True and Half A Shave. Frances Tomelty has worked extensively in radio and on audiotape.
Dave Black Dermot Crowley Theatre credits include, at the National, The Double Dealer, Undiscovered Country, As You Like It, The Woman, Brand, Richard III, The Strangeness of Others, The Plough and the Stars and Amadeus (also at Her Majesty's); The Hostage for the RSC, Ancient Lights, The Memory of Water, Hedda Gabler and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme (Time Out Best Supporting Actor) at Hampstead Theatre, The Weir for the Royal Court at the Gate Theatre Dublin, the Duke of York's and on Broadway, Dealer's Choice at the Manhattan Theatre Club New York, A Whistle in the Dark at the Abbey Theatre Dublin and the Royal Court, Summerfolk at Chichester Festival, The Dark River at the Orange Tree and Exiles, The Government Inspector and Translations for the Bristol Old Vic. TV includes Dead Gorgeous, Holby City, Art of War, Ultimate Force, Helen West, Murder Rooms, Trial and Retribution, A Touch of Frost, Rebel Heart, Falling for a Dancer, Jonathan Creek, Pie in the Sky, Stay Lucky, Father Ted, The Sculptress, Kavanagh QC, Poirot, Minder, Boon, Blue Money, Radio Pictures, Empty Nest, An Independent Man and Echoes. Film includes Before You Go, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Staggered, The Son of the Pink Panther, Wilt, Octopussy, The Return of the Jedi and Giro City. Frequent radio broadcasts include William Trevor's The Story of Lucy Gault for Book at Bedtime.
Frank Coin Harry Towb Theatre includes Angels in America, Guys and Dolls, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Death of a Salesman, Macbeth, Trelawny of the Wells, Square Rounds, Brighton Beach Memoirs (also at the Aldwych), Schweyk in the Second World War and The Beggar's Opera for the National, Awake and Sing at the Saville Theatre, Summer and Smoke at the Lyric Hammersmith and the Duchess Theatre, The Mortimer Touch at the Duke of York's, The Square Ring at the Lyric Hammersmith, Drama at Inish and Dark Halo at the Arts Theatre, Fairy Tales of New York at the Pembroke, Croyden and at the Comedy, My Place at the Comedy, Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning at the Duke of York's, The Bellow Plays at the Cochrane and Fortune Theatre, Under the Weather in New York, Backbone at the Royal Court, Macook's Corner at the Abbey Theatre Dublin, Sing a Rude Song at Greenwich, Born Yesterday on tour, Look No Hands at the Fortune, Twigs at the Belgrade Coventry, Section Nine for the RSC at the Aldwych, Sherlock Holmes and Travesties at the Aldwych and in New York, Man and Superman at the Savoy, Bar Mitzvah Boy at Her Majesty's, There's a Small Hotel on tour, Little Shop of Horrors at the Comedy, The House of Blue Leaves at Sadler's Wells, Anything Goes at the Prince Edward, Arsenic and Old Lace at Chichester, Philadelphia Here I Come, Angels in America, The Rivals and The Importance of Being Earnest at the Abbey Theatre Dublin, Bing Bong and The Price at the Chester Gateway, A Trinity of Two at the Tristan Bates Theatre, Dreyfus at the Tricycle, Hunting for Dragons and Kiss Me Like You Mean It at the Soho Theatre, Macbeth at Ludlow and Molly Sweeney at Bristol Old Vic. TV includes Red Roses for Me, Minder, The Professionals, Elizabeth Alone, Manions of America, Gentle Touch, Pictures, Five Go Mad On Mescalin, Kelly Monteith, Holiday Time, Thinkabout, If Tomorrow Comes, Joss's Giants, Paradise Postponed, Constant Hot Water, Lost Belongings, Home James, Weisenthal, The Paradise Club, The Camomile Lawn, So You Think You've Got Troubles, Casualty, Screen One: Trust Me, The Day Today, Brighton Belles, Comedy Nation, The Bill, Holby City, Doctors; performed and wrote Cowboys, Odd Men In, You & Me and Storytime. Film credits include The Quiet Woman, Eye Witness, Prize of Gold, Above Us the Waves, All Night Long, Sleeping Tiger, Prudence and the Pill, The 39 Steps, Patton, 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia, The Blue Max, Lasiter, Moll Flanders, Poorhouse, The Most Fertile Man in Ireland, Conspiracy of Silence, Eddie loves Mary and Cheeky.
Robbie Mullin Chris Corrigan Theatre credits include Energy in Derry, La Chunga at the Lyric Theatre Belfast, Alice in Wonderland at An Griannan, Letterkenny and Tallaght Civic, Knives in Hens for Fada, Militia Man for Partisan, Closure in Belfast and Edinburgh and Mojo Mickybo on tour. TV credits include Jimmy McGovern's Sunday, Eureka Street, Trail of Guilt, 1798, the Comedy and Respecting Difference. Film credits include Accelerator and The Goldfish Bowl.
Shanks O'Neill Karl Johnson Karl Johnson's theatre credits include, for the National, A Long Time Gone, The Walls, The Mysteries, Animal Farm, The Rivals, Wild Honey, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Fawn, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Don Quixote, Uncle Vanya, The Sea, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Black Snow, The Shape of the Table, The Machine Wreckers, The Ends of the Earth and Cardiff East; and elsewhere, Been So Long, The Night Heron, Boy Gets Girl, This Is a Chair, Not Enough Oxygen, Irish Eyes and English Tears, Sudlow's Dawn, Just a Little Less than Normal and The Weir at the Royal Court, Vieux Carre at the Piccadilly, As You Like It at the Old Vic, Much Ado About Nothing at Regent's Park, Hedda Gabler at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, The Dresser at the Thorndike, War Crimes at the ICA, Knight of the Burning Pestle, TV Times and In the Company of Men for the RSC, Woyzeck at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, The Last Yankee at the Leicester Haymarket, The Country Wife for Centreline Productions, Amadeus for the Peter Hall Company and Medea at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. TV: Champions, Chips with Everything, Rock Follies of 77, Cold Harbour, Sons and Lovers, Gifted Adult, Oral Treason, Shoestring, Only Connect, The Black and the Blue Lamp, Bergerac, Bulman, Boon, The Bill, Casualty, Poirot, Rules of Engagement, A Tale of Two Cities, The Shawl, Sexual Intercourse Began in 1963, Judas and the Gimp, Glassing Gareth, Lifeboat, Catherine The Great, As You Like It, An Independent Man, Wing and a Prayer, The Temptation of Franz Schubert, Vanity Fair, David Copperfield, Without Motive, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Born and Bred and Dalziel and Pascoe. Film: The Magic Shop, The Tempest, Jubilee, Prick Up Your Ears, Close My Eyes, Wittgenstein, Love is the Devil, Tomorrow La Scala and Pure.
Bobbie Torbett Ron Donachie Theatre credits include One Big Blow for 7:84, Animal and Civilians for Scottish Theatre Company, Death of a Salesman, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, The Merchant of Venice, The Alchemist, Douglas and A Tale of Two Cities at the Glasgow Citizens, A Streetcar Named Desire at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, Macbeth and A View From the Bridge at the Chester Gateway, The Price at Scarborough, The Threepenny Opera for Borderline Theatre Company, Macbeth, Dracula, Destiny and Scrap at the Half Moon and Mother Courage at the Mermaid. TV credits include The Key, The Bill, Silent Witness, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Murder Rooms, 'Orrible, Shackleton, Rebus, Taggart, Starhunter, Scarlet Pimpernel, Too Much Sun, Extremely Dangerous, Rab C Nesbitt, Magic With Everything, The Life and Crimes of William Palmer, Looking After JoJo, Casualty, Supply and Demand, Ivanhoe, Aint Misbehavin', Mike and Angelo, Bad Boys, Hamish Macbeth, Cracker, The Governer, The Gambling Man, The Shooting Party, Red Eagle, Pied Piper, It Could Happen To Anybody, The Bogie Man, Strathblair, Letting Go, Taggart, The Gravy Train, Sweet Nothing, Coronation Street, Down Where The Buffalo Go, The Justice Game, The Monocled Mutineer and Tutti Frutti. Film includes White Mischief, Just Another Miracle, Blood Red Roses, Comfort & Joy, Sakharov, Those Glory Glory Days, III Fares The Land, Great Escape II, Jungle Book, Fierce Creatures, The Lucky Suit, Titanic, The Match, A Shot at Glory, Beautiful Creatures, Al's Lads and Man Dancin'. Ron Donachie was a founder member of the acapella singing group The Flying Pickets.
Sharon Lawther Eileen Pollock Eileen Pollock has toured with most major Irish companies, including FieldDay, Dubbeljoint, Charabanc, Druid and Red Kettle, and several in this country. Theatre roles range from Lady Macbeth at the Lyric Belfast to Sycorax the Witch in pantomime; from Miss Hannigan in Annie at Liverpool Playhouse to Lady 'Speranza' Wilde (on tour and on C4) and Anna in Women on the Verge of HRT (on tour and in the West End). Fight like Tigers and Kathleen, Mother of all the Behans are two ongoing one-woman shows. TV roles have also been varied and include the portrayal of Lilo Lil in the BBC series Bread. Film credits include Far and Away, Four Days in July, A Love Divided, Wild About Harry and Angela's Ashes. Radio credits include Bernard McLaverty's Grace Notes and the title roles in Boudicca and in The Pamela Mayers Show.
Helen Woods Michelle Fairley Theatre credits include Midden for Hampstead Theatre, The Weir at the Duke of York's and on Broadway, Never/and at the Royal Court, Death and the Maiden at The Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast, Oleanna at the Duke of York's, Dr Faustus and Philadelphia Here I Come at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, The Hostage, Pentecost and Factory Girls at the Tricycle, Joyriders for Paines Plough, Don Juan for the Royal Exchange Manchester, Lady from the Sea at the Citizens Glasgow, The Doctor of Honour for Cheek by Jowl, Leonce and Lena at the Sheffield Crucible and The Shadow of a Gunman in Ireland and on tour. TV includes Inspector Rebus, In Deep, McReady and Daughter, Births, Marriages and Deaths, Vicious Circle, Tom Jones, The Broker's Man, Precious Blood, Safe and Sound, A Mug's Game, Inspector Morse, The Woods, Cardiac Arrest, Comics, The Long Roads, Force of Duty, Fleabites, Children of the North, Pentecost, Valentine Falls, Saracens, Hidden City and CrossFire. Film includes The Others, Hideous Kinky, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and Hidden Agenda.
Paul Foggarty Ruairi Conaghan Ruairi Conaghan trained at John Moore's University. His theatre credits include Peer Gynt and Romeo and Juliet at the National, Put Out That Light, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Tearing the Loom at the Lyric, Belfast, Blood, Sweat and Tears on Big Telly Northern Irish tour, That Driving Ambition and Sinking for Replay on Northern Irish tour, Box, Rough Justice and Ruffian on the Stair at the Northcott, Exeter, Fall from Grace at the Liverpool Playhouse, Drill Hall Elegies and Green, Orange and Pink (one man show) at the King's Head, Philadelphia Here I Come at Wyndham's, The White Devil, School for Scandal and Othello at the Liverpool Everyman, Philadelphia Here I Come in Belfast and on US tour and Trust at the Royal Court (NT Studio co-production). TV and Film: Murphy's Law, Cuchullain, Made in Heaven, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Do the Right Thing, Walk with Me, The Bill, An Officer from France and It's A Goat's Life. Radio: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne and The Man from God Knows Where.
Cooper Jones Gerard Jordan Theatre credits include The Force of Change at the Royal Court, The Laughter of Our Children and American Buffalo at the Lyric Theatre Belfast and on tour in Ireland. TV credits include As The Beast Sleeps, Give My Head Peace and Over the Wall. Film credits include Boxed, Divorcing Jack, and Accelerator.
Swiz Murdoch Packy Lee Theatre credits include Shopping and Fucking and Macbeth for Prime Cut, Massive for Tinderbox, Marching On at the Lyric Theatre Belfast, You Choose and Silent Scream on tour, Aladdin, Cinderella, Goldilocks and Sleeping Beauty for Northern Irish Christmas audience and Madam Butterfly at the Grand Opera House, Belfast. TV credits include As The Beast Sleeps and Give My Head Peace. Film includes The Escapist, H3, Accelerator, Blamm! Blamm! and Titanic Town. Radio includes Don't Make Me Laugh, Heavies for Hire, McLeish and Tricycles.
Harry Foggarty Stuart McQuarrie Stuart McQuarrie's theatre credits include Ivanov at the National, The Taming of the Shrew for the RSC, Our Country's Good on international tour (directed by Max Stafford-Clark), Cleansed at the Royal Court, Shining Souls at the Traverse and the Old Vic, The Government Inspector at the Almeida, The Slab Boys Trilogy at the Young Vic, The Life of Stuff at the Donmar Warehouse, Macbeth at the Tron and The House Among the Stars at the Traverse. TV includes The Way We Live Now, Four Fathers, The Echo, Butterfly Collectors, Silent Witness, Invasion Earth and The Peter Principle. Film includes Young Adam, 28 Days Later, The Honeytrap, The Life of Stuff, Trainspotting and Love Me Tender.

Spilo Johnston Breffni McKenna Theatre credits include Da at the Riverside, Danton's Death at the Gate, Handful of Stars at the Bush, Plough and the Stars at the Young Vic, The Glass Menagerie and Whistle in the Dark at the Abbey Dublin, Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible, Observe the Sons of Ulster and Bad Language at Hampstead, Street Captives at the Royal Exchange, Twelfth Night at the Bristol Old Vic and Talk of the Devil at the Watford Palace. TV credits include Urban Gothic, Relic Hunter, Daylight Robbery, Casualty, Beck, AD, A Green Journey, Boon, Witches, The Cry, South of the Border, Chinese Whispers, Made in Spain, Birds of a Feather, Shoot to Kill, Heartbeat, Murder in Eden, Between the Lines, Troubles and Lady Chatterley's Lover. Film credits include Puckoon, Cast a Cold Eye, Titanic Town, Outpost, The Crying Game and Maurice.
Rat Joyce Andy Moore Theatre credits include Macbeth at the Lyric Theatre Belfast, Energy in Londonderry, No Place Like Home and Convictions for Tinderbox, Rush on tour, Spring Awakening for Galloglass and Once Upon a Time at the Waterfront, Belfast. Film and TV includes Suffering and Trail of Guilt.
Director Peter Gill Peter Gill began his career as an actor. In 1964 he became Assistant Director at the Royal Court and, in 1970, Associate Director. He was Founder Director of the Riverside Studios from 1976. He was Associate Director of the National Theatre 1980-1997, and was the Founding Director of the National Theatre Studio. His directing credits include, for the National: A Month in the Country, Don Juan, Much Ado About Nothing, Danton's Death, Major Barbara, Tales from Hollywood, Small Change, Kick for Touch, Antigone, Venice Preserv'd, Fool for Love, The Murderers, As I Lay Dying, A Twist of Lemon, In the Blue, Bouncing, Up for None, The Garden of England, Show Songs, Mean Tears, Mrs Klein, Juno and the Paycock, Cardiff East and Luther. For the Royal Court: A Collier's Friday Night, The Local Stigmatic, The Ruffian on the Stair, A Provincial Life, The Soldier's Fortune, The Daughter-in-Law, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Life Price, The Sleepers Den, Over Gardens Out, The Duchess of Malfi, Crete and Sergeant Pepper, The Merry-Go-Round, The Fool and Small Change. For Riverside Studios: The Cherry Orchard, The Changeling, Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar and Scrape off the Black. For the RSC: Twelfth Night, New England and A Patriot for Me. Other credits include Bow Down, Down by the Greenwood Tree at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North, The Way of the World at the Lyric, Hammersmith, Uncle Vanya for Field Day, The York Realist for the English Touring Theatre and Original Sin for the Crucible Theatre Sheffield, Tongue of a Bird and Certain Young Men at the Almeida and Speed-the-Plow at the New Ambassadors. His plays include The Sleepers Den, Over Gardens Out, Small Change, Kick for Touch, In the Blue, Mean Tears, Cardiff East, Certain Young Men, Friendly Fire, The Look Across the Eyes, Lovely Evening, Original Sin and The York Realist. Adaptations and Versions: A Provincial Life, The Merry-Go-Round, The Cherry Orchard, Touch and Go, As I Lay Dying, The Seagull.
Designer Alison Chitty Alison Chitty trained at St Martin's School of Art and at Central School of Art and Design. Work for the National includes A Month in the Country, Don Juan, Danton's Death, Venice Preserv'd (British Drama Award), Tales from Hollywood, Fool for Love (West End), Antony and Cleopatra, The Late Shakespeares, Remembrance of Things Past (Olivier Award for Best Costume Designer), Luther and Bacchai; and elsewhere, Ecstasy and Uncle Vanya (Hampstead Theatre), Measure for Measure and Julius Caesar (Riverside Studios), Tartuffe, Volpone and Hamlet (RSC), Orpheus Descending (Haymarket and Broadway). Work in opera includes New Year (Houston and Glyndebourne), Gawain, Arianna and Bartered Bride (ROH), Jenufa (Dallas), Billy Budd (Geneva, Paris, LA, ROH -Olivier Award), Khovanschina (Olivier Award, ENO), La Vestale (ENO), Meistersinger (Copenhagen), Turandot (Paris), The Flying Dutchman and Julius Caesar (Bordeaux), Tristan and Isolde (Seattle and Chicago), Otello (Munich), Dialogues of the Carmelites (Santa Fe), Aida (Geneva) and The Last Supper (Berlin and Glyndebourne). Film work includes Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet, Naked and Secrets and Lies (Palme D'Or, Cannes). She is Director of Motley Theatre Design Course.
Sound Score Terry Davies Terry Davies won a 2003 Olivier Award for Play Without Words with Matthew Bourne and their collaboration The Car Man won the 2000 Evening Standard Award for Best Musical Event. Other compositions for theatre include Luther, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Misanthrope, Neaptide, The Festival of New Plays, Antigone and Tales From Hollywood for the National, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Alice in Wonderland, A Patriot for Me, New England and Coriolanus for the RSC, Original Sin for the Crucible Theatre Sheffield, Life After George for the Duchess Theatre, The York Realist for ETT at the Royal Court and Strand Theatres, Lady in the Van for Birmingham Rep, Speed-the-Plow at the Ambassadors and Duke of York's, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream for Regent Park's Theatre, Hushabye Mountain and The School for Scandal for English Touring Theatre, Alarms and Excursions for the Gielgud Theatre and Tongue of a Bird for the Almeida Theatre. He has orchestrated/conducted the scores for 19 feature films including The Lawless Heart, The House of Mirth, The Parole Officer, A Midsummer Night's Dream (with Michele Pfeiffer & Kevin Kline) and Shakespeare in Love (co-conductor on an Oscar-winning score).
Rich Walsh Previous sound designs include: Dinner, Closing Time, The Associate, Sanctuary, The Mentalists, The Shadow of a Boy, Free, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, The Walls at the National, Exposure, Under The Blue Sky, On Raftery's Hill, Sacred Heart, Trust, Choice at the Royal Court, What the Night Is For at the Comedy, 50 Revolutions at the Whitehall, Julie Burchill is Away at Soho Theatre, The Price at The Tricycle, The Boy Who Left Home at the Lyric Studio and on national tour, Yllana's 666 at the Riverside Studios and The Pleasance in Edinburgh, Strike Gently Away From Body at the Young Vic Studio, The Difficult Unicorn at Southwark Playhouse, Body And Soul, Soap Opera and The Baltimore Waltz at Upstairs At The Gatehouse, The Nation's Favourite - The True Adventures of Radio One at Jermyn St Theatre and national tour, Small Craft Warnings at The Pleasance London, The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth on tour in Japan and Dirk at the Oxford Playhouse.
Lighting Designer Hartley T A Kemp Theatre credits include, with Peter Gill, Original Sin at the Sheffield Crucible, The York Realist for English Touring Theatre at the Royal Court and Certain Young Men and Tongue of a Bird at the Almeida. Other recent theatre credits include Mrs Warren's Profession for the Peter Hall Company at the Strand Theatre, A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bristol Old Vic, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Coriolanus for the RSC at the Swan and on a regional/international tour, The Merchant of Venice for the RSC at the Pit, the Swan and on a regional/ international tour, Passion Play and Good at the Donmar Warehouse, The Tempest at the Sheffield Crucible and at the Old Vic, As You Like It at the Sheffield Crucible and Lyric Hammersmith, Don Juan, The Country Wife, A View From The Bridge and Twelfth Night at the Sheffield Crucible, Queuing for Everest at the Sheffield Crucible Studio, The Doctor's Dilemma at the Almeida and on tour in the UK, 50 Revolutions for the Oxford Stage Company at the Whitehall Theatre, Faith at the Royal Court Upstairs, No Sweat for Birmingham Rep, Dealer's Choice at Theatr Clwyd, Treehouses at the Northcott Exeter, Dealer's Choice at West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Disputation and The Queen of Spades and I for Pluto Productions at New End, Thieves Like Us, In The Jungle of Cities, Rosmersholm, Seascape with Sharks and Dancer at Southwark Playhouse and When Did You Last See My Mother? at BAC. Opera credits include Les Pecheurs des Perles and Iris at Opera Holland Park, Mary Seacole at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio, M Butterfly, Martha, The Barber of Seville, La Sonnambula and Carmen for Castleward Opera at Castleward and Belfast, Die Fledermaus for London City Opera, Chichester Festival Opera and on tour and The Marriage of Figaro at the QEH and on tour. Recent musical theatre credits include Showboat and West Side Story at the Tiroler Landestheater, Innsbruck, Dorian at the Arts Theatre, Jesus Christ Superstar at the Theatre Royal, Hanley, Assassins and Sweet Lorraine at the Old Fire Station, Oxford and The Happy Prince on tour.
Dialect Coach Majella Hurley Majella Hurley trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. Since graduating she has worked as a dialect coach in theatre, radio, film and television. Recent theatre credits include Anything Goes and Closing Time at the National, Abigail's Party at Hampstead, A Passage to India and After Mrs Rochester for Shared Experience, Chicago at the Adelphi and Ten Rounds at the Tricycle. TV credits include Blood Strangers, Inspector Lynley Mysteries and State of Play. Film credits include With or Without You and Intermission.
Assistant Director Tim Stark Recipient of this year's John S Cohen Bursary at the NT Studio. At the National: Assistant Director on The Associate and A Prayer for Owen Meany; Co-Director (with Mick Gordon) on Le Pub for the Translations season. For English Touring Theatre: Assistant Director on King Lear, and Director on The Boy Who Fell Into the Book. Recently assisted on Push Up (Royal Court). Directing elsewhere includes Bombing People and Signing Off (Jermyn St Theatre); Dealt With (Chelsea Centre); Heads (Bridewell); Serving It Up, Rafts and Dreams, King John (Poor School). Also directed a workshop of Metro, a new musical which he co-wrote. Acting credits include The Natural Cause (NT Studio); Across Oka, Mary and Lizzy and Restoration (RSC); Making Noise Quietly and Macbeth (RSC/Almeida). A Memory of Two Mondays (Cockpit); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Derby); Neville South's Washbag (Finborough). TV: Guardians, Pie in the Sky, Frankenstein, All Good Things, William Tell, Little Eyolf. Film: Heaven's Promise and A Shocking Accident.
Production Manager Jason Barnes
Stage Manager Trish Montemuro
Deputy Stage Manager Fiona Bardsley
Assistant Stage Manager Valerie Fox
Andrew Speed
Fight Director Terry King
Assistant to the Designer Mark Friend
Assistant to the Lighting Designer Elaine Grimes
Assistant Production Manager Andy Ward
Costume Supervisor Louise Dadd
Production Photographer Nobby Clark
Poster designed by Michael Mayhew
Programme designed by Stephen Cummiskey
Programme researched and compiled by Dinah Wood
Brendan Winslow
Scenery constructed by Souvenir Scenic Studios Ltd.
Additional painting by Olly James
Thanks to Zoe Woodley
Thanks for the voice over to Lorcan Cranitch
Harmonica played live by Philip Hopkins
Writer Owen McCafferty Born in 1961, Owen McCafferty lives with his wife and three children in Belfast. He was writer on attachment to the National Theatre Studio in 1999. His work includes Closing Time for the National, The Chairs (an adaptation of lonesco), No Place Like Home and Court Room No 1 for Tinderbox Theatre Company, Mojo Mickybo for Kabosh Theatre Company, and Shoot the Crow for the Druid Theatre Galway and Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre Studio. His plays for radio include The Elasticity of Supply and Demand and The Law of Diminishing Returns.

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