SEÁN MCGINLEY, one of Ireland's finest actors, will revive his long association with Galway's Druid Theatre Company company and director Garry Hynes, by starring in a new production of Eugene McCabe's King Of The Castle this autumn.
King Of The Castle will be staged in the Town Hall Theatre from Thursday September 28 to Saturday October 7 at 8pm, before transferring to The Gaiety Theatre as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. It co-stars Seána Kerslake, best known as Aisling in the TV series Can't Cope Won't Cope and for her role in the IFTA-winning film, A Date For Mad Mary. It will be directed by Garry Hynes.
Scober MacAdam (McGinley ) appears to be the 'king of the castle', living in a big house on a large farm in County Leitrim, with his young wife Tressa (Kerslake ). Appearances are deceptive though - their marriage is childless and frustrated, and when rumours threaten Scober’s pride, he concocts a plan that jeopardises all he has worked for.
The play brought McCabe to notoriety when it premiered at the 1964 Dublin Theatre Festival amid some controversy in an Ireland where sex was still largely a taboo subject. As Fintan O’Toole wrote: "Sex is the currency of the play, the language into which everything else – greed, history, the rise of the self-made man – is translated."
"King Of The Castle is very much a play of its time," admits Gary Hynes, "but the central themes still resonate today, being steeped in a world of patriarchy and religion that invades the personal and the intimate. Staging a play with deep-rooted issues, a big cast and a demanding setting is always a challenge, but it presents another great opportunity for us to undertake a project that is ambitious and provocative."
McGinley has had a long association with Druid, having performed in previous productions by the company, such as Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, tom Murphy's Conversations on a Homecoming, and JM Synge's Playboy of the Western World. King Of The Castle will also feature the award-winning design team from DruidShakespeare: Francis O’Connor (design ), James F Ingalls (lighting ), Greg Clarke (sound ), and David Bolger (movement ).
Tickets are available from the Town Hall Theatre (091 - 569777, www.tht.ie ). See also www.druid.ie
