Druid have announced their most ambitious production yet, DruidO’Casey, a play cycle of Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy directed by Garry Hynes.
DruidO’Casey will have its world premiere at the Town Hall Theatre as part of Galway International Arts Festival 2023. It will then tour to the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
A century ago, Ireland was reborn in the fires of rebellion and war. The playwright Sean O’Casey bore witness to these seismic events and dramatised them as the Dublin Trilogy, three great works of Irish theatre, full of history, humanity and humour – The Plough and the Stars, The Shadow of a Gunman and Juno and the Paycock.
100 years later, Druid will weave O’Casey’s three plays into an epic theatrical event of conflict, national identity and the human toll of war, DruidO’Casey, Druid’s most ambitious production yet and one of the greatest Irish stories ever told.
Audiences will experience O’Casey’s work like never before: directed by Tony Award winner Garry Hynes, the three plays will be performed together in one day, drawing parallels between an Irish past and an international present. A limited number of single-play performances will also take place.
Garry Hynes, Artistic Director of Druid:
It has been a long-held ambition to combine these three incredible plays into one theatrical saga, and to celebrate O’Casey as one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights, deftly matching the tragedy of these events with the comedy and wit of his characters. Ahead of this mammoth undertaking, I wish to pay tribute to the legion of people who will make this all happen: the Druid Staff, Board and Ensemble; the dozens of freelance theatre artists and practitioners; our partner festivals and venues; and our funders and supporters including the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, University of Galway, Galway City Council, our great friend Paul Boskind, and production sponsor Smurfit Kappa.
Paul Fahy, Artistic Director of Galway International Arts Festival:
We are delighted DruidO’Casey will premiere at GIAF 2023. Garry Hynes’ extraordinary cycles of Shakespeare, Murphy and Synge’s plays were all world-class exceptional events which live strong in the memory. There is no director working in the English language better equipped to direct these three plays which are so essential to the Irish nation and theatrical canon.
