Druid’s 2016 programme – and not a bullet in sight!

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Fans of Druid Theatre face good and bad news this week. The bad news is that the company – currently presenting Big Maggie in Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre – won’t stage a show in Galway before July.

The good news is that Druid’s fans “will be sick of us after that,” says Garry Hynes as she says there are plans to present three shows in Galway from then on.

A new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot will kick things off in Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre, while Helen and I, the debut drama by Tuam writer Meadhbh McHugh will open in August, also in Druid. That will still be running when Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane opens at the Town Hall Theatre.

Druid previously staged Waiting for Godot in the early 1980s and “Beckett was always a huge influence”, Garry says. “When the lads said they’d love to do Godot, it was wonderful.”

The ‘lads’ are Marty Rea, Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard and Rory Nolan, all of whom shone in Druid Shakespeare last year.

Having created an ensemble of actors to work on DruidMurphy and DruidShakespeare, Garry felt it was logical to take on Godot.

“The relationship that exists between us makes sense going into this hugely iconic play. If any of the four were not available, we wouldn’t do it – the play is such a monster to direct, we said we’d try it and see if we’d make any sense of it.”

The four actors will be cast following workshops over the next few weeks and the production will be directed by Garry, as will the revival of The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Helen and I, meanwhile, will be directed by Annabelle Comyn, one of the best-known names in Dublin theatre.

“We presented it as a Druid Debut and decided to give it a full production,” says Garry, explaining that its author Meadhbh McHugh “shows huge promise”.

Helen & I tells the story of two sisters who return home to look after their dying father. Over a summer’s weekend, their future emerges from hard-won and hard-fought rearrangements of the past.

It’s being directed by Comyn who has directed Shaw’s Pygmalion and Tom Murphy’s The House at The Abbey Theatre.

“I’d have been happy to direct it but I want to bring in new blood, people with new ways of looking at things and doing things,” says Garry.

While Druid is “delighted to be introducing new writing from the West of Ireland, producing new work is difficult,” says Garry. “If you are doing your job well in developing new work, two or three out of every five productions will fail.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.