DOMHNALL GLEESON, best known for his roles in the new Star Wars trilogy, and as the hapless Doofus in Frank of Ireland, will star in Medicine, the new play by Enda Walsh.
Medicine, written and directed by Enda Walsh, and starring Clare Barrett, Aoife Duffin, Domhnall Gleeson, and percussionist Sean Carpio, will be staged in Galway and Edinburgh. It is produced by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival.
The Edinburgh run is from August 4 to 29, and the Galway run will take place in the Black Box Theatre from September 2 to 18. Domhnall Gleeson is particularly looking forward to performing live theatre again.
“I cannot believe that at long last a theatre, a crowd, and those butterflies are about to return,” he said. “Enda’s new play promises laughs, sadness, madness, and love - but will only make sense when there are people with us in the room. Thank you Landmark, GIAF and Edinburgh for making it happen.”
Medicine is both a comedy and a meditation on how, for decades, society has treated people with mental health issues. John Kane sits on a hospital trolley. Very shortly, a giant lobster, two women called Mary, a very old man, and a jazz percussionist arrive.
Then everything will start. Actors will be interrupted by crew members, technical mechanics happen on stage, and performance becomes a kind of therapy. The audience’s laughter becomes complicit in the creation of a surreal universe that shifts abruptly into moments of emotional poignancy.
“Every time it's a real privilege to make work and get to show it - but this year it’s immensely joyful to do so,” Enda Walsh said. “Medicine circles around themes I’m forever preoccupied with. Absent love, isolation, unfixed memories, our need to connect with each other. It sounds like an abbreviation for the past 15 months - but theatre for me is about taking us elsewhere - to a world that’s sort of ours but not ours. I hope that’s what this production of Medicine will do.”
Tickets for Medicine (€25 - €35 ) go on sale at 9am on Friday, June 4. In line with Government restrictions, capacity is limited to 50 people for each performance. Tickets for four live streamed performances (September 18 to 15 ) and watch on demand (September 20 to 26 ) go on sale at 9am Friday June 11. Tickets are available from www.giaf.ie See also www.medicinetheplay.ie
