THE JESUS TRILOGY Will Premiere in Dublin

Award-winning Hatch Theatre will team up with Once Off Productions and Mermaid Arts Centre to bring to life a trilogy of novels by J.M. Coetzee. This new triptych called THE JESUS TRILOGY explores the legacy of memory, the nature of passion, power, politics and dance. Making its world premiere at Project Arts Centre for Dublin Theatre Festival the play is adapted for stage by Eoghan Quinn in collaboration with director Annabelle Comyn and re-unites the creative duo at the Festival after their 2022 show "colic".

A man steps off a boat with a child in a city called Novilla. He is given the name 'Simon' and the age '55'. The boy is named 'David'. His first mission is to find the lost boy's mother. But how can he recognise someone he's never met? Follow Simon and David's journey as they form an accidental family in this strange and unfamiliar place, where people seem content to live on bread and bean paste, endure repetitive manual labour and attend classes at The Institute without a hint of cynicism, questioning or pursuit of intimacy.

This is an epic, universal drama exploring parenthood, the collective and the individual, legacy, passion, justice, life and death. The play is a story set in a post Judeo Christian world that explores what might replace our desire for answers. It is a story of this family - Simon, Ines, and David - and what it is to be a family, and parent a child with our own inherited behaviours, and the story of how societies/nations inherit a past that informs their present processes. How do we move forward after acts of suppression/colonialism/genocide? Can we truly start afresh?

The work relates, in part, to Coetzee's own life as a South African writer now living in Australia and presents a world where stories are told, but asks us to consider by whom and to what end? Are we the best authors of our own stories? Do we have a fundamental "need to find a container for our experience"? And it explores how a refusal to acknowledge guilt can create a powerful, and misplaced, sense of righteousness.

Award winning director Annabelle Comyn will bring her vision and rigour to this riveting new work in collaboration with Oliver Award winning set and costume designer Tom Piper (Girl On An Altar, Abbey Theatre), choreographer Megan Kennedy of Junk Ensemble, regular Hatch collaborator Philip Stewart as composer and sound designer, and lighting designer Stephen Dodd. This ambitious re-imagining of The Jesus Trilogy features a stellar cast including Malcolm Adams, Colin Campbell, Alexandra Conlon Fergal McElherron, Elaine O'Dwyer, Tierra Porter, Raymond Scannell, and an ensemble of talented young performers aged 10-16.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Adapted by Eoghan Quinn in collaboration with Annabelle Comyn

Directed by Annabelle Comyn

Choreography by Megan Kennedy

Set & Costume Design by Tom Piper

Lighting Design by Stephen Dodd

Sound & Composition by Philip Stewart

AV Design by Michael Dunne

CAST: Malcolm Adams, Colin Campbell, Fergal McElherron, Elaine O'Dwyer, Tierra Porter, Raymond Scannell.

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