New Production of RUM AND VODKA to Play Citizens Theatre

A new production of Rum and Vodka by seminal Irish playwright Conor McPherson is presented at the Citizens Theatre.

Rum and Vodka by the multi-award winning McPherson, most famous for his 1999 play The Weir, will be directed by Birkbeck Trainee Director Stephen Darcy and star Citizens Theatre Actor Intern Martin Donaghy. This new production is presented in the intimate surroundings of Citizens Theatre's Circle Studio from 5-7 March.

Rum and Vodka tells the story of one young man and his three-day alcohol-fuelled rampage around Dublin. Exasperated with his mundane nine-to-five existence he embarks on a path of self-destruction in an unorthodox quest for redemption. Written when McPherson was only 21, Rum and Vodka sparkles with an energy, wit and brutal honesty that prefigures the playwright's later successes including an Oliver Award for Best New Play for the Weir and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for The Night Alive.

The one-man show is directed by Stephen Darcy who is currently on a year-long placement at the Citizens Theatre as part of the Theatre Directing MFA at Birkbeck University. Since beginning his placement in autumn 2014, he has worked with Citizens Theatre Artistic Director Dominic Hill on A Christmas Carol as Assistant Director and on Hill's production of Hamlet. Assuming the role of the hopeless antihero is Martin Donaghy, Citizens Theatre's Actor Intern, a position sponsored by the Robertson Scholarship Trust. Donaghy graduated from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2014 and has already starred in Citizens Theatre main stage productions of Hamlet as Horatio and A Christmas Carol as Bob Cratchit.

Describing Rum and Vodka, Darcy says: "I'm really excited to be directing my first production at the Citizens Theatre. Rum and Vodka is a remarkably funny yet poignant piece of writing by one of the most exciting and influential living playwrights today. The intimate scale of the Circle Studio naturally lends itself to a very personal and immediate retelling of this tragicomedy where the audience become immersed in the protagonist's recounting of his chaotic binge through Dublin."

Tickets are available from 0141 429 0022 / citz.co.uk.

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