A Play-Reading of ‘MacGuinness’

Join us for the UK Premiere of a Play-Reading of ‘MacGuinness’ by Margaret Cox, about Irishman, Billy MacGuinness, Orator of London’s Speakers Corner and his close friendship with Cafferty, aka the Poet, Writer and Political Activist, Heathcote Williams.

I have often listened to these speakers, and have sometimes wondered where they came from, how they lived, and where they would go when they had said or screamed their say, as the gates of the park were closing”. – SEAN  O’CASEY 

‘MacGuinness’ centres on our eponymous hero, Irishman, Billy MacGuinness, Hyde Park Orator, Latchiko, King of the Gypsies, Ringsend wanderer  – and Betty, his beleaguered girlfriend, another Dubliner,a female lavatory attendant: and their relationship with his much younger friend Cafferty, aka the writer Heathcote Williams, (poet, dramatist, actor, lyricist, painter, sculptor, magician, pamphleteer and visionary), who became the relentless scourge of the British establishment for over half a century!!

Largely based on the archive of Heathcote Williams and his first book, “The Speakers” (1964), ‘MacGuinness’ brings the wild truth teller back from the dead and shows Cafferty’s fascination with this Irish ‘high-hot shaman’. From the austere fifties to the psychedelic sixties, Cafferty and MacGuinness are drawn to each other and begin to ‘merge’ despite their very different backgrounds. Sadly, MacGuinness never makes it past his 40th birthday and dies in Blackpool in 1967. This is where our play begins. A grieving Cafferty comes to a grieving Betty, at 38 Hornby Road, to retrieve the notebooks MacGuinness has promised him and spends a night he will never forget.

 
About Heathcote Williams: 15 November 1941 – 1 July 2017

Heathcote Williams, was an English poet, actor, political activist, artist, magician and dramatist. Born in Helsby, Cheshire, and brought up in Fulham, London, he was sent to Eton and then Oxford to read law – despite his protests and a period spent in a Franciscan monastery. Escaping to London from school he became fascinated by Hyde Park’s Speakers Corner, and developed a particularly close friendship with the charismatic Irishman Billy McGuinness, who retained a huge influence on him throughout his life. Out of these observations came his first book, “The Speakers”, gaining a rave review from Harold Pinter, and also an introduction to Soho, which led him to his first job as editor of Transatlantic Review, and a broad entry to London’s counter-culture of the time.

More Information about Cafferty Aka Heathcote Williams here

“In London’s Hyde Park, the speakers congregate daily to expound endlessly on those topics closest to their minds and hearts–sex, religion, politics, freedom, fear, and wild combinations of all these things, salted with their own wit and prejudice. Heathcote Williams  book “The Speakers”  presents the  Hyde Park speakers as they live and work, ramble, panhandle, and, of course, speak. Among them is MacGuinness, the Irish bum, drunkard, and dope addict, who deals with the crowd with anecdotes and blarney”;

This is the first London reading of  Margaret Cox’s play ‘MacGuinness’. There has been two previous readings at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York.

The cast of MacGuinness includes award winning Irish actors, Ruaidhri Conroy,  Arthur Conti and Angeline Ball (“The Commitments”) Directed by the acclaimed Actor/ Director Aidan Redmond. 

CAST & DIRECTOR 

Rúaidhrí Conroy. (MacGuinness)

Dublin born Rúaidhrí Conroy is an award winning actor; some of his Theatre work includes the lead role in “The Cripple Of Inishmaan” (Royal National Theatre and NYC); Ray in The Beauty Queen of Linnane,  Druid Theatre Co. at The Gaiety Dublin; Lead in “The Country Boy”  Druid Theatre; Brian Friel’s “Philadelphia Here I Come”, N.I. Tour;  “Nora And Jim” Dublin & ICC Hammersmith. Film work includes “Into The West”, (winner of Young Artist Award: US Academy 1993); “Hear My Song”; “Fools Of Fortune”; “Moondance”; “Deathwatch”; “Nothing Personal”; “The Van”; “A Serpents Kiss”; “When The Sky Falls’; “Pilgrimage”; ‘Six Shooter’ (short film):     T.V. includes “Kavanagh Q.C.” ; “Star Dust”; “My Boy Jack”; “Treasure Island”. Rúaidhrí is winner of the Theatre World Award 1998.

Arthur Conti (Cafferty)

Arthur Conti’s films include Beetlejuice 2 (Directed by Tim Burton. 2024):  House of the Dragon (2022). Theatre: Winners Curse, (Park Theatre) Machinal (YPT).

Angeline Ball: (Betty)

Angeline Ball is an award winning Irish actress. Most notably known for her roles in Alan Parker’s The Commitments and John Boorman’s The General.

She won a coveted IFTA ( Irish Film and Television Award) for her outstanding performance as Molly Bloom in Sean Walsh’s ´Bloom’ based on James Joyce’s Ulysses.

She has appeared in film, television and theatre.
Her theatre credits include… They’re Playing Our Song. The Rocky Horror Show. The Plough And The Stars. Greta Garbo Came To Donegal. The Playboy Of The Western World. In Skagway.

Angeline is also an acclaimed singer/songwriter and has just completed her first novel due for release shortly.

AIDAN REDMOND (Director) 

AIDAN REDMOND is an acclaimed Actor / Director: His work includes – On Broadway – “The Cripple of Inishmaan: 

Off-Broadway – ‘Lovers – Winners’, “The Yalta Game”, “Woman And Scarecrow’, “Sive’ (Irish Rep USA). “Particle of Dread” / Oedipus Variations (Signature). “The Suitcase Under The Bed”, “Temporal Powers” and “Wife To James Whelan” (Mint): Regional – “The Mai”, (Decadent, National Tour/Dublin Theatre Festival). “The Diary of Anne Frank”, “Miranda”, “To Kill A Mockingbird” (Mirror, VT). “Betrayal’ (MST, NJ), “The Real Thing” (Boomerang) 

Film/TV: “Son Of The South”, ’79 Parts’ ‘Daylight’, ‘I Sell the Dead /Daredevil’, “Delta Girl’

Aidan Directed The Mountains Look Different (Mint). Most recently Aidan also appeared in the major feature film “The History Of Sound”, alongside actor Paul Mescal.