New Arts Festival play offers a fresh take on topical issue

Bruce Jenner may have been in the limelight last month when he became Caitlyn and featured on Vanity Fair’s cover, but Galway is now about to get its own transgender experience. Luck Just Kissed You Hello by Amy Conroy will receive its world premiere at Druid Theatre as part of the Galway International Arts Festival.

The plot centres on Laura returns home for the death of her father – but Laura is now Mark.  In this dramatic and funny exploration of masculinity, Mark defends his new life to those who know him best, his twin brother Gary and old friend Sullivan. And, most confronting of all, he has to face what it means to be himself.

Amy has worked with Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), on understanding, not only what it feels like to be both genders, but also to investigate gender fluidity and masculinity through a transgender lens.

“I feel it is important for the play to convey the uncertainty felt by many men,” she says. “Yet I also wanted to acknowledge the great beauty in so many traditional masculine traits. To examine what it feels like to be a man, but also what it feels like to be a man deemed not masculine enough, or indeed a female deemed too masculine.”

Amy Conroy’s previous plays include I ♥ Alice ♥ I, which explored the love between two women; Eternal Rising of the Sun, about the grit and determination of the young dance student; and Break, about explosive staffroom conflicts. A similar intensity is on the cards with Luck Just Kissed You Hello.

Starring Amy Conroy, Mark Fitzgerald and Will O’Connell, and directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, It’s a co-production between HotForTheatre and Galway International Arts Festival, the first time the two organisations have collaborated.

It will preview from next Thursday, July 9, to Sunday, July 12, nd will open on Monday, July 13, running until Saturday, July 25 at 8pm, with matinees on July 18 and 25 July at 3pm. The show’s  duration is 90 minutes and tickets costing €18 – €20,are available from www.giaf.ie or at the Festival Box Office on 091 566577 or at Box Office in Galway Tourist Office, Forster Street, Galway.

Luck Just Kissed You Hello marks the first co-production between HotForTheatre and Galway International Arts Festival. The production is supported by an Arts Council play development award with production Support provided by Rough Magic.