Stewart Parker's NORTHERN STAR Set for Tron Theatre's Mayfesto Season

The Tron is delighted to welcome award-winning company Rough Magic to its Mayfesto season with a play that explores the history that led to, and springs from, the Easter Rising. Stewart Parker's Northern Star is based on the charismatic Belfast-born United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken as he dissects the reasons for the failure of the rebellion of 1798 and its attempt to forge a new nation. McCracken, a Belfast Presbyterian and a child of the Enlightenment, is the perfect hero to confound the stereotypes of Ulster's political history.

The story takes place on the night before his arrest and subsequent execution; a night that brings with it ghosts of friends and foes from Ireland's past - both North and South - to recall the seven ages of his life, from youthful idealism to disillusion and despair. Each age is presented in the style of a great Irish writer, from Boucicault and Wilde, to Behan and Beckett, in a comic, terrifying and moving journey through the missed opportunities of Irish history. The play ends with an electrifying challenge to all citizens to break the cycle of violent division.

Playwright Stewart Parker (1941-1988) remains one of Ulster's most acclaimed playwrights. His first internationally successful play for the stage was Spokesong (1975) which won the 1976 Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award. Parker then embarked on a decade of writing that saw his vision of Northern Ireland's past and present take flight. In February 2015 a production of Northern Star was directed by Lynne Parker with students at the Lir Academy, in which a new way of presenting this complex piece was given a trial run. The artistic success of that approach has been invaluable in forming the basis of this Rough Magic production.