Easter Monday - a group of Irish nationalists stage a rebellion against the ruling British government in Ireland in an attempt to establish an Irish Republic. Some 1,600 rebels seize prominent buildings in Dublin and clash with British troops on the streets of the capital. Within a week, the insurrection is suppressed and more than 2,000 people are dead or injured. The leaders of the rebellion are executed. A few years later an Irish Free State is established. Yet, over the following century the events of that week and their immediate aftermath have cast a long shadow over Ireland and continue to shape Anglo-Irish relations today.
Timed to coincide with the centenary of the insurrection, Christopher Bland's The Easter Rising - and thereafter is part drama, part revue, filled with Irish song performed by the cast. Incorporating poems, lyrics and speeches by
W.B. Yeats, Dominic Behan, James Mangan, Louis MacNeice, Walter Savage Landor, Roger Casement,
Winston Churchill, Sean O'Casey and others, it reveals the contrasting takes on the Easter Rising, the War of Independence, the Civil War and their legacies for Britain and Ireland. Shedding light on this often skewed period of history and in so doing, illuminating it.
Christopher Bland is an Anglo-Irishman whose critically-acclaimed first novel, Ashes in the Wind, was published by Head of Zeus in 2014. His family came from County Kerry and he was brought up in County Down. His second novel, Cathar, is being published by Head of Zeus in the autumn of 2016. He is a former chairman of BT plc, the BBC, LWT, the
Royal Shakespeare Company and the Hammersmith Hospitals Trust. He fenced for Ireland in the Rome 1960 Olympic Games.
Donnacadh O'Briain's career highlights include the recent critically acclaimed Rotterdam at Theatre503 (transfer soon to be announced); the daring pop-up-venue PEEP; his critically acclaimed London and Dublin production of Leo Butler's The Early Bird, directing the late Gerard Murphy in a major Irish production of King Lear, and assisting Sir
Michael Boyd on the RSC's multi-award winning Histories Cycle. Donnacadh has worked with the likes of Complicite, Kneehigh,
Gate Theatre Dublin and RADA. Later this year he will direct Happy To Help at Park90 and My World Has Exploded a Little Bit for Underbelly at Edfringe.
Hartshorn - Hook Productions is a modern theatrical entertainment company, based in London. Recent productions include Away From Home, Rotterdam by Jon Brittain at Theatre503, directed by regular collaborator Donnacadh O'Briain, the London revival of
Joe DiPietro and
Jimmy Roberts' musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change at Above the Arts, and
Green Day's explosive and American Idiot at the Arts Theatre. Past productions include the perennial favourite The Blues Brothers, The Flanagan Collective's dinner-theatre A Christmas Carol and the Evening Standard The Award nominated Woody Sez.
Easter Rising - and thereafter follows I Loved Lucy -
Lee Tannen's intimate portrait of America's comic sweetheart
Lucille Ball, starring
Sandra Dickinson and directed by Jermyn Street Theatre's artistic director Anthony Biggs.
HARTSHORN - HOOK PRODUCTIONS
presents
THE EASTER RISING - and thereafter
By Christopher Bland
Director Donnacadh O'Briain
Designer Petra Hjortsber
Lighting Designer
Richard Williamson
Jermyn Street Theatre
16b Jermyn Street,
London
SW1Y 6ST
How to find us:
Nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus.
Dates
April 26 to 30
Press Performance April 26
Time
7.30pm
Tickets
£22.00, £15.00 concessions.
Box office
0207 287 2875
and online at
www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk
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