Druid, Ireland’s world-touring theatre from Galway famous for originating monumental works, knows how to keep its powder dry.
Shows come only when they’re ready – never before. If there is no show that is ready for the audience, if there is no play that rises above the ordinary – then there is no show. Imagine that.
At Druid, in between creating lifetime high experiences that are burned into memory forever, entire years may pass with not much happening at all. Like a battering North Atlantic storm blowing the moss off rocks around Galway Bay, Druid launches full force when it has something. But then not long after it could be quiet and calm for days, weeks or months. The good news: that calm never lasts.
Rest assured that even when the door at Druid Lane is closed and all seems to be still, somewhere in there a plan is afoot. A scheme is taking shape. A dream is alive. An impossibly ambitious project is being talked about as if it’s actually going to happen. Garry Hynes and her crew are always ready to go as big as needed to hit the target. That’s what they do. Most recently, the 2012 production of DruidMurphy, which included three plays by the visionary (and mostly unknown outside of Ireland) Tom Murphy, created the definitive theatre experience about that uniquely Irish horror story through the years – of leaving. And of course the cycle’s relevance was that it came at a historical moment when flights from Dublin to somewhere/anywhere were once again filling fast.
Meanwhile, North Atlantic radar installations are beginning to track the gathering approach of yet another big one off the west coast of Ireland. Our models show it destined to make landfall sometime this spring/summer. Sure, it’s a long way off, but it’s sufficiently large that you need to know about it now. Residents are being warned to lay in a supply of sand bags and make sure they have plenty of candles, food and drink on hand. A serious battering could be in the works.
In 2015, get ready to duct tape your woolen socks on to try to keep them from being knocked off. Because Druid is pairing up with star writer Mark O’Rowe to bring you all four Shakespeare Henry plays (Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V) in a new version. Generally the world needs more Shakespeare like it needs another folk singer with a hole in the head (or however the song goes). But when done WELL, when done BRILLIANTLY – that’s the kind of Shakespeare we can never get enough of.
In a nutshell, if you could be anywhere this year, this is one to catch. It’s Fintan O’Toole’s top tip for the year.
“This is a great story of families and wars and the making of nations,” said Garry Hynes, “the question we are asking is how, in the context of the historical relationship between Ireland and England, do we as Irish artists produce these plays today?”
So plan ahead and make the pilgrimage to Galway for the world premiere of this epic undertaking, which will then go to New York.
Never heard of Druid? Cruise the archive of past productions to see what you’ve missed.
