“IT'S HARD to explain. You thought the outside of me was me, but it wasn’t. My outside never matched my inside.” This is Mark speaking, but it comes as a shock to his family, for he used to be their sister Laura.
The world premiere of Luck Just Kissed You Hello, by Irish actor and playwright Amy Conroy, takes place in the Mick Lally Theatre as part of the Galway International Arts Festival.
Laura returns home for the death of her father, only now she is Mark and he must defend his new life to those who know him best - his twin brother Gary and old friend Sullivan. Above all he must face what it means to be himself.
For this dramatic and funny exploration of masculinity, Amy Conroy worked with the Transgender Equality Network Ireland on understanding, not only what it feels like to be both genders, but also investigatING gender fluidity and masculinity through a transgender lens.
“I feel it is important for the play to convey the uncertainty felt by many men,” says Conroy. “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.”
The play features Amy Conroy, Mark Fitzgerald, and Will O'Connell. It is directed by Caitriona McLaughlin and is a HotForTheatre and Galway International Arts Festival co-production.
Luck Just Kissed You Hello runs from July 13 to 25 at 8pm with matinees on July 18 and 25 at 3pm. Previews run from July 9 to 12. There is no show on Jult 14 and 19. Tickets are €20/18 - €20 through www.giaf.ie or at the festival box office, Galway Tourist Office, Forster Street, on 091 - 566577.
