Will gets ready for a role in Playboy at Lyric

Will gets ready for a role in Playboy at Lyric

29 August 2012

A DOWNPATRICK actor is taking to the Lyric Theatre stage with a part in one of Ireland’s most celebrated plays.

Will Irvine will play the part of Shawn Keogh in John Millington Synge’s comic masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World.

A former Down High School student, Will studied drama in Dublin, where he continues to pursue his acting and writing career. Among his previous works performed locally is The Final Words of Thomas Russell, which he co-wrote with his former drama teacher Philip Orr.

Other highlights of Will’s career so far include performances in Spokesong by Stewart Parker, a Belfast playwright, and Moment by Irish dramatist Deirdre Kinahan at the Bush Theatre in London.

“This will be my first time on stage at the new Lyric theatre so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Will. “The play is set in a small cottage in the middle of Mayo where nothing really happens; it is fairly sedate. A girl called Pegeen Mike is due to be married to Shawn Keogh who is the last eligible man for miles around, so he’s no great shakes. All of a sudden in comes this stranger who is running from the law.”

This Christy Mahon claims he has killed his father and as the news spreads like wildfire the play reflects on the locals who are more interested in enjoying his story than in condemning the immorality of his murderous deed. Christy goes on to capture the romantic attention of Pegeen Mike and, when he wins the horse race, he is truly ‘the wonder of the Western World’. That is, until his ‘dead’ father walks in.

When it was first staged at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1907 it famously sparked riots such was the angry reaction of audiences to the play, who felt it portrayed the Irish people as violent and uncivilised.

“It is a comedy but there’s lots of dark things going on,” said Will. “Shawn definitely adds a bit of light relief.

“Playboy looks at why people glamorise violence. Pegine thinks there’s a big difference between a gallant story and a dirty deed but when you see the violence in front of you it is a different thing.”

With a fight director also employed for the Lyric cast, Will notes that it is a “very rough and tumble production”.

“Conall Morrison is the director and his trademark is high octane, visceral, full throttle plays,” he explained.

Despite this, Will believes it will be enjoyed by many people, especially if they haven’t been to the theatre before.

“It’s a funny play and it is very audience friendly,” he said. “My mum is coming to see it, and they do not always enjoy the kind of plays I would do. It is very theatrical in the best sense of the word.”

Other members of the strong cast include Patrick Moy (Christy Mahon) and Niall Cusack who recently starred in The Importance of Being Earnest, and Orla Fitzgerald (Pegeen Mike) who appeared earlier this year in Uncle Vanya at the Lyric alongside Conleth Hill. There are also familiar faces on the Lyric stage such as Lalor Roddy and Alan McKee.

“The Playboy of the Western World pulls no punches in its portrayal of life in the west of Ireland and contains some magnificent language,” said director Conall Morrison, who won Best Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards earlier this year for his acclaimed production of The Crucible. “This new production will harness the energy, dynamism and craic of the peninsula — a mad maelstrom of music, drink, mayhem and violence and the playground for some very primal confrontations.”

The Playboy of the Western World runs on the Northern Bank Stage at the Lyric Theatre from September 9 to October 6. For more information, visit www.lyrictheatre.co.uk or contact the box office on 9038 1081.