| 02/10/2007 | Dance & Theatre | Ireland |
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The Playboy of the Western World
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| Posted by Editor Ireland | |
29 September - 24 November  in a new version by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle Director Jimmy Fay Set design Anthony Lamble Lighting design Sinead Wallace Costume design Catherine Fay Cast: Angeline Ball, Kate Brennan, Liam Carney, Phelim Drew, Aoife Duffin, Charleen Gleeson, Joe Hanley, Olu Jacobs, Laurence Kinlan, Giles Terera, Eileen Walsh 'You have full breasts, a bit of a tummy, round hips and a behind'. No way. 'You have a bust, hips and a defined waist'. That's more like it… In a modern pub in a west Dublin suburb, Pegeen Mike flicks through Irish Bride. Her father's a 'muppet', her fiancé scared of his Mammy. Into the frame of the CCTV camera comes a dusty, but well dressed young man… And so the scene is set for Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle's iconoclastic new version of Synge's great classic, The Playboy of the Western World. In this contemporary re-imagining the Playboy, Christy Mahon, is Christopher Malomo, a well-educated refugee from Nigeria, on the run after he 'killed' his father with a pestle for pounding yams. 'look it, those young ones … they're not interested in you, not really. They think you're nice and that, but it's the celebrity thing they're after. They all tried for Eurostar and they were shite. But you'll do instead' Probably the most famous and infamous play of the Abbey Theatre's repertoire, The Playboy of the Western World has constantly been revived and revisited. Adigun and Doyle follow that tradition, albeit in revolutionary fashion, to transpose the play from the West of Ireland and bring it bang up to date. This hilarious but uncompromising new version mixes the colloquial snap of Doyle's language with the poetic voice of Nigerian born Adigun. In this vivid re-telling Synge's extraordinary play re-discovers its ability to tell the truth of a contemporary Irish experience and continues its legacy, as vibrant as ever. _________________________ Abbey Theatre 26 Lower Abbey Street Dublin 1 Ireland Admin: 00 353 1 887 2200 Fax: 00 353 1 872 9177 Email: info@abbeytheatre.ie www.abbeytheatre.ie/ |