Finborough Theatre Presents THREE SEAGULLS 4/24

London's Finborough Theatre will present THREE SEAGULLS, three staged readings complementing the London premiere production of The Notebook of Trigorin. The three works scheduled for readings are THE SEAGULL on April 10th, HIS GREATNESS on April 17th, and PIETA on April 24th.

Saturday, 10 April 2010
THE SEAGULL by Thomas Kilroy, after Anton Chekhov will be directed by Caitriona McLaughlin and will play for one performance only at 3.00pm.

Saturday, 17 April 2010
HIS GREATNESS by Daniel MacIvor will be directed by John Kachoyan and will play for only one performance only at 3.00pm.

Saturday, 24 April 2010
PIETA by Patrick Marmion will be directed by Nikolai Foster and will play for one performance only at 3.00pm.

All tickets are £8 and can be purchased by calling the box office at 0844 847 1652 or visiting http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/.

Thomas Kilroy's version of The Seagull is a dazzling reappraisal of Chekhov's classic play which transposes the action to the West of Ireland in the late nineteenth century. In the decline of the Anglo-Irish estates and the emergence of the Land League, Kilroy discovers illuminating parallels to the shifts in Russian society that inform Chekhov's original.

The Seagull was first performed at The Royal Court Theatre in 1981, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, with Tony Rohr,
Anton Lesser, Stuart Burge, Harriet Walter, T. P. Mckenna, Anna Massey And Alan Rickman.

Playwright Thomas Kilroy was born in 1934 in Callan, County Kilkenny. His novel, The Big Chapel was shortlisted for The Booker Prize, and was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1971, but he is best known as a playwright. His plays include The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche, was presented at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1968 and subsequently at Hampstead Theatre Club in a production directed by Richard Eyre, The O'Neill (National Theatre of Ireland - Peacock Theatre), Tea and Sex and Shakespeare, Double Cross, The Shape of Metal (National Theatre of Ireland - Abbey Theatre), Talbot's Box (Peacock Theatre), The Seagull (Royal Court Theatre), The MAdam MacAdam Travelling Theatre (Field Day Theatre Company) and The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde (Abbey Theatre and Melbourne Festival). He has also written an adaptation of Ibsen's Ghosts entitled Ghosts (After Ibsen) and an adaptation of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author (Abbey Theatre). Other awards include the Heinemann Award for Literature, The AIB Literary Prize, the American-Irish Foundation Award for Literature, The Rockefeller Foundation Residency, the Kyoto University Foundation Fellowship, a Prix Nikki Special Commendation, and an Irish Pen Award for his radio play, The Coleen and the Cowboy. He lives in County Mayo, Ireland and is a member of The Irish Academy of Letters, The Royal Society of Literature, and Aosdána.

His Greatness is a riveting exploration of the pressure of artistic achievement and the ego often needed to support it. Inspired by a ‘potentially true story' - the actual writing of The Notebook of Trigorin - His Greatness follows three men; a great American playwright in his declining days, wracked by the drink and drugs he uses to ward off loneliness and despair; his trusted and loyal assistant; and a young street hustler, stuck together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver.

His Greatness is a voyage through the mind of a great artist on the verge of death - a man as he's never been seen before, grasping at straws of his former glory and pleading for some form of rebirth.

Celebrated Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor has written and directed numerous award-winning productions including See Bob Run, Wild Abandon, 2-2-Tango, This Is A Play, The Soldier Dreams, You Are Here, How It Works and A Beautiful View. With long time collaborator Daniel Brooks, he created the solo performances House, Here Lies Henry, Monster and Cul-de-sac. Daniel's play Never Swim Alone won the award for overall excellence at the New York Fringe in 1998 and, in 2002, he won a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award for In On It, which was presented at PS122. His play Marion Bridge received its off-Broadway premiere in New York in 2005. From 1987-2007, with producing partner Sherrie Johnson, he ran Da Da Kamera, a respected interNational Theatre touring company that has brought his work to Australia, Israel, Europe, the UK, and extensively throughout Canada and the US. In 2007, His Greatness was critically lauded in its premiere production at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver. Both House and See Bob Run have been produced at the Finborough Theatre.

Director John Kachoyan is currently Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre where he is assisting on The Notebook of Trigorin. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney. He recently directed a new adaptation of Marivaux's La Dispute (Soho Theatre, Old Red Lion Theatre and Edinburgh Festival). He also worked on the 2009 National Play Festival with PlayWriting Australia as Director's Assistant. Other directing in the UK includes Lilly, Alta (Bridewell Theatre), Jubilee (Embassy Theatre) and a staged reading of Correspondence (Embassy Studio Theatre). International directing includes the Australian premieres of Daniel MacIvor's Never Swim Alone and This Is A Play (Darlinghurst Theatre, Sydney), White Biting Dog (Hart House Theatre, Toronto) and The Soldier Dreams (Cellar Theatre, Sydney). John was Artistic Director at the Redshift Design Group for three years, directing new Australian works such as Fresh Food People (Newtown Theatre, Sydney) and Lighthouse (The Edge Theatre, Sydney). As Assistant Director, Snatch Paradise (Edinburgh Festival) and The Berry Man and Hypatia (Theatre Royal, Hobart). John has also tutored at the Central School of Speech and Drama and The University of Sydney.

The Press on His Greatness
"His Greatness is a great piece of theatre. More than mere homage to Tennessee Williams, Daniel MacIvor's superb study of a fading Southern playwright is a finely detailed story with nuance to spare." Peter Bernie, Vancouver Sun.
"It's rare to find a play in which the entire cast is so sharply written, but that's just one of the old-fashioned pleasures of His Greatness." Kamal Al-Solaulee, The Globe and Mail.

Pieta is journalist and critic Patrick Marmion's reimagining of Chekhov's The Seagull. What if we were kidding ourselves about Chekhov's The Seagull? What if we'd got stuck with a rose tinted understanding of the playwright and his play? A distanced view that perhaps even sentimentalised suicide. Stripping back the years, Pieta asks how - without the comfort of distance - The Seagull might look to a modern audience minus the pretty frocks and linen suits. A pared-down blistering exploration of a modern classic.

Playwright Patrick Marmion is a journalist, teacher and writer. He has written for Time Out, Evening Standard, The Times, The Guardian, Spiked Online and The Daily Mail. Screenplays include Mushroom Soup (Renaissance Films for Sam Mendes), The Dead Guy (D-Films), Archie Tanner and the Dodo (Children's Film and Television Foundation). Plays include The Institute (Etcetera Theatre), Egomania and Pembroke Road. Radio plays include Osterley (TheatreVoice.com). Directing includes Decadence and American Heart (Tabard Theatre) and The Destruction of Dan Dergas Hotel (Hen and Chickens Theatre).

Director Nikolai Foster trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. Nikolai has directed two major revivals of plays by Noël Coward - Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre) and A Song At Twilight (Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Theatre Royal Windsor and National Tour). Other directing includes A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Rep), Kes (Liverpool Playhouse and National Tour), All the Fun of the Fair (National Tour), The Witches of Eastwick (National Tour), London Assurance (Watermill Theatre, Newbury and National Tour), Amadeus (Sheffield Crucible), Aspects of Love (Nelson Mandela Theatre, Johannesburg, and National Tour), Animal Farm and Bollywood Jane (West Yorkshire Playhouse), A Streetcar Named Desire (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), The Liar (Cochrane Theatre) and A Chorus Line (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield). Nikolai has worked as a Director on Attachment at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, The Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre Studio. Other projects include Bourbon (Old Vic 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic), Coleman, Zippel, City of Angels (The English Speaking Theatre, Frankfurt), My Fair Lady (Larnaca International Festival, Cyprus), Singin' in the Rain and Oliver! (Courtyard Theatre) and Evita (Zouk Mikael International Festival). Forthcoming directing includes Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends (Oldham Coliseum Theatre), a West End revamping of Flashdance and A Christmas Carol (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

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