Nicolas Kent will direct the World Premiere of Frank McGuinness' Greta Garbo Came to Donegal which runs from 7 January to the 20 February, with press night on 11January 2010. Design is by Robert Jones with lighting by Matthew Eagland and sound by Tom Lishman.
Greta Garbo Came to Donegal, and she did. The year is 1967 - nothing is ever the same after. Ireland is on the verge of violent change, two couples are on the verge of ending, a woman tries to save her family, a girl tries to save her future. Above it all but in the midst of things, determining what happens next, is the loveliest and loneliest of all women, the great Garbo. But when the gods arrive, they can cause havoc, not least to themselves, as the divine Greta learns.
The cast is Angeline Ball (Sylvia Hennessy), Lisa Diveney (Colette Hennessy),
Michelle Fairley (Paulie Hennessy),
Daniel Gerroll (Matthew Dover),
Caroline Lagerfelt (Greta Garbo),
Owen McDonnell (James Hennessy) and
Tom McKay (Harry Caulfield).
Angeline Ball is best known for her screen role as Imelda Quirke in The Commitments with other notable film work that includes The General, The Gambler, Trojan Eddie and Ransom. Her television credits include EastEnders, Brothers in Trouble, Our Friends in the North, Doc Martin and Any Time Now. Her most notable stage role to date was the role of Mrs Gogan in
Stephen Rea's production of The Plough and the Stars at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.
Lisa Diveney's theatre credits include The Glass Menagerie for Clywd Theatr Cymru, Cleansed for Oxford Stage Company, Arms and the Man at
Salisbury Playhouse and
John Gabriel Borkman for the
Donmar Warehouse. Her television credits include Afterlife for ITV, Broken News, The Story of Tracy Beaker, The Green Green Grass all for the BBC and earlier this month she played young Enid Blyton in BBC 4's Enid starring
Helena Bonham Carter.
Michelle Fairley was last at the
Tricycle Theatre in Hostage as well as
Frank McGuinness' The Factory Girls. Her other stage credits include Dancing At Lughnasa at The Old Vic, Neverland for the Royal Court, Scenes From A Big Picture for
The National Theatre, The Weir at the Duke of York's which later transferred to Broadway and The Wild Duck and Othello for the
Donmar Warehouse, the latter for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role, 2008. Her screen credits include Misfits, Lark Rise To Candleford, A Short Stay in Switzerland and a forthcoming role in the final two Harry Potter films, playing Mrs Granger.
Daniel Gerroll's stage credits include Once a Catholic and The Love of a Good Man for the Royal Court. His screen roles include The Starter Wife, Sisters and Cashmere Mafia on television and Chariots of Fire, Drop Dead Fred and Big Business on film.
Caroline Lagerfelt's stage debut was in The Philanthropist at the Royal Court, which she followed with numerous productions on Broadway including Lend Me A Tenor at the Royale Theater, The Real Thing and Otherwise Engaged at the Plymouth Theater, Small Family Business at the Music Box Theater and The Constant Wife at the Schubert Theater. She was also previously in the Tricycle's transfer production of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom off Broadway, directed by
Nicolas Kent. Her extensive television credits include the role of Ce Ce Rhodes in Gossip Girl, Inger Dominguez in Nash Bridges and Sheila Silver in
Beverly Hills 90210. Her film credits include August, Poseidon, All the King's Men and Minority Report.
Owen McDonnell's stage work includes Berlin Hannover Express at Hampstead Theatre, Hitchcock Blonde at the Royal Court, Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Liverpool Playhouse and Death of a Salesman at Birmingham Rep. His screen credits include Spooks and recent hit ITV drama Singlehanded.
Tom McKay was at the Tricycle earlier this year as part of the company for The Great Game: Afghanistan. His other theatre credits include Frost/Nixon at the Gielgud Theatre, Rough Cuts for the Royal Court, On The Third Day at the New
Ambassadors Theatre, Henry V and Mother Clapp's Molly House for
The National Theatre and Macbeth and Lord of the Flies for the
Royal Shakespeare Company. His work on screen includes Being Human, Primeval, Octavia and Joe's Palace.
Nicolas Kent is Artistic Director of the Tricycle and earlier this year co-directed the hugely successful The Great Game: Afghanistan. Other productions Kent has directed while at the theatre include The Great White Hope - which he also staged for the
Royal Shakespeare Company, Trouble in Mind, Wine in the Wilderness, A Love Song for Ulster, Macbeth, 10 Rounds, the 20th Anniversary production of
Mustapha Matura's Playboy of the West Indies, Walk Hard - Talk Loud, How Long Is Never?, Darfur A Response and The War Next Door. He has also directed all the Tricycle Tribunal Plays and 2007's controversial Called To Account in which
Tony Blair was put on trial for crimes of aggression against Iraq. Television directing credits include The Workshop, Pentecost, Sharing Time, Colour of Justice, Justifying War and Half the Picture.
Frank McGuinness is an award winning Irish playwright and poet. His more IShISrecent credits include the acclaimed screenplay of A Short Stay in Switzerland for the BBC, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at Hampstead Theatre and his translation of Euripides' Helen at the Globe. Other notable work includes Gates of Gold at Finborough, There Came A Gypsy Riding at the Almeida, Someone Who'll Watch over Me for Hampstead Theatre, West End and Broadway and a recent translations of Oedipus at
The National Theatre. McGuinness' play The Factory Girls was staged at the
Tricycle Theatre twenty years ago.
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton
Tom McKay & Lisa Diveney
Tom McKay & Daniel Gerroll
Michelle Fairley
Caroline Lagerfelt
Tom McKay & Michelle Fairley
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