AN OLD SONG, HALF FORGOTTEN Comes to the Abbey Theatre
Performances run April 14 - May 6, 2023.
Deirdre Kinahan's new play, An Old Song, Half Forgotten, opens a fantastical window into the life and soul of an older actor who is living in care with Alzheimer's disease:
The Abbey Theatre and SoFFT Productions collaborate this Spring to stage Deirdre Kinahan's unique and moving new play, An Old Song, Half Forgotten, which brings the celebrated Irish actor Bryan Murray, recently diagnosed with the same disease, back to his spiritual home, on the Peacock stage.
Louise Lowe leads a team of extraordinary creatives in building a style of production that will meet the challenge of Alzheimer's head-on whilst also creating a magical theatrical experience. AN OLD SONG, HALF FORGOTTEN will make its world premiere on April 20 and runs until May 6.
Inspired by interviews with Byran, the play tells the story of James O'Brien, a Dubliner who enjoyed a great Theatre career but now lives in a nursing home in England, lost to the fog of Alzheimers. However, when a visiting string quartet play music in the day room they summon up a suite of glorious characters and moments from his life allowing James and the audience to revel once again in his great loves and losses whilst conjuring up a smashing vision of his younger self. This Younger Self is played by actor Matthew Malone who acts as both the character's memory and guide, leading him through the play and production.
Origninal music inspired by the play is composed by one of Cork's finest music makers Paul Frost, and with four of Ireland's leading string musicians including, Mia Cooper and Brigid Leman, both on violin; Ed Creedon on viola; and finally Aoife Burke on cello, who beautifully bring this story together with Frost's harmonies.
Theatre is Bryan Murray's soul, his life, with his career beginning as a member of the Abbey Theatre company and spanning to big TV roles like in ITV's Bread, Channel 4's hit soap Brookside, The Irish RM and more recently in RTE's Fair City, where he continues to play Bob Charles (since 2005) and is still able to work in the show today due to wearing an earpiece to prompt him his lines. In this play, Bryan gleefully returns to his most beloved stage, The Peacock, to inhabit a drama that sings entirely to his distinctive voice and talent at this time of great change in his life.
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