Lovers (Winners)
Brian Friel's beautiful one act play, Directed by Rosalind Scanlon
A touching love story of two teenagers, Mag and Joe…. On a hillside overlooking Ballymore… their love, their hopes, their dreams and their lives are lived out so fully on that one summers afternoon.
Come end enjoy a magical night of theatre by Ireland’s leading Playwright Brian Friel.
Cast:
MAG – Lauren McGarvey
JOE – William Foote
MAN – Seán O’Neill
WOMAN – Margaret Moore
Friday/ Saturday Doors 7.30pm, Starts 8.00pm, Sunday Matinee - Doors 2.30pm, Starts 3.00pm. No Latecomers.
Tickets: £12/10
MAG – Lauren McGarvey
Lauren McGarvey is from Bangor, County Down,Northern Ireland; She is delighted to be reprising the role of Mag in Brian Friel’s “Lovers- Winners” having first performed the role at The Bush Theatre in 2016..
Lauren trained in Acting (B.A.) at The Court Theatre Training Company,London. Theatre credits include: The Hannah Coffin Ship (Irish Theatre),Cacophony (Almeida Theatre), You Must Learn To Understand (Splinter Theatre), she played role of Lucia Joyce in Simples of The Moon at ICC, (Irish Repertory Theatre), Playboy of the Western World (London Irish Rep), Lovers at The Bush Theatre, Crows by Day, Jackals by Night (Green Curtain Theatre), Dream On (Irish Theatre), She Has Seen the Wolf (Her story Theatre N16), Neighbourhood Watch (N1 Theatre Company), The House of Bernarda Alba (N1 Theatre Company. Film: Gold Doesn’t Rust (Green Curtain Theatre).
JOE – William Foote
William is from Bangor, Co.Down, Northern Ireland and delighted to be a part of this wonderful production.
He trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
William is also currently Centre Director of the ICC.
Previous credits:
Theatre: Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe Education Department), The Little French Lawyer (Shakespeare’s Globe) Every Five Minutes (Tron Theatre Glasgow), Twelfth Night, (Bard in the Botanics Glasgow), Kara Sevda (international Tour), Simples of the Moon (Irish Repertory Theatre)
Short Film: Hey Mr Tambourine Man (London School of Film), til’ Death (short).
Radio: Radio ulster survey
WOMAN – Margaret Moore
Margaret has worked extensively in Theatre; Some of her Theatre Credits include Resurrection (Arts Theatre), Lovers: Winners (Bush Theatre), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (The National Theatre), On Raftery’s Hill, (Time Out Critics’ Choice, The Rosemary Branch & Dublin Theatre Fest), O’Flaherty VC (Winner of Best Play at Lost Theatre Fest); Faraway (Royal Court and Noel Coward Theatre). Films include A Wonderful Place, Fast Love, Riana and Chasmogamy, (Winner Best Supporting Actress – Monaco International Film Festival).
MAN – Seán O’Neill
Seán was born in Gloucester to Irish parents and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre credits include: The Crucible, Macbeth, The Big House, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant and Good Evening Mr.Collins (Abbey Theatre Dublin), Macbeth (Olympia Theatre Dublin), The Winter’s Tale (Cork Opera House), Richard III, Troilus and Cressida (Samuel Beckett Theatre Dublin), The Bacchae, The Diary of Mrs. Pepys (Everyman Theatre Cheltenham), Our Country’s Good, Bartholomew Fair (Theatre Royal Bristol).
TV: My Boy Jack (ITV), Fair City, The Clinic, Fallout (RTÉ), In The Name of the Republic (TV3). Radio; The First Clear Place, The Poetry Programme, Jook For Mrs. McKeown (RTÉ), Twelfth Night (BBC).
This amateur production of “Lovers (Friel)” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
About The Playwright Brian Friel
Brian Friel is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists, having written over 30 plays across six decades. He was a member of Aosdána, (the society of Ireland’s most influential artists), the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Irish Academy of Letters, and the Royal Society of Literature where he was made a Companion of Literature. He was awarded the Ulysses Medal by University College, Dublin.
Some of Friel’s plays include the awarding plays ‘Translations’, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, ‘Faith Healer’ and ‘Philadelphia Here I Come’; also ‘The Freedom of The City’, ‘The Loves Of Cass McGuire’, ‘Living Quarters’, ‘The Mundy Scheme’, ‘Molly Sweeney’, ‘Wonderful Tennessee’ and ‘Give Me Your Answer Do’. Friel also penned stage adaptations of Checkov’s ‘The Three Sisters’, Turgenev’s ‘A Month In The Country’ and Charles Macklin’s ‘The True Born Irishman’ (play was called ‘The London Vertigo’). His plays ‘Philadelphia Here I Come’ and ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ were made into major feature films. In 1980 Friel set up Field Day Theatre Company with actor Stephen Rae; Field Day sought to find a middle ground between the traditional culture of rural Ireland and the more secular culture of the north.
Friel’s play Lovers – Winners”, written in 1967, was one of his early plays, commended for it’s structure and beauty, the script gave a clear indication of the phenomenal success which would lie ahead for Friel in his playwriting career. Friel set most of his plays in rural parts of Donegal and County Tyrone and the beautiful lyricism of his writing captures the sounds of the voices of the people of Donegal and the Northern regions and it also reveals Friel’s deep love for his people and his land.
A shy and reclusive man, Friel rarely made public statements. A quote from his own ‘Self Portrait’ however, sheds some light on the true character of modern Ireland’s leading playwright. Friel said “I am a married, have five children, live in the country, smoke too much, fish a bit, read a lot, worry a lot, get involved in sporadic causes and invariably regret the involvement and hope that between now and my death I will have required a religion, a philosophy, a sense of life that will make the end less frightening than it appears to me at the moment”.
Brian Friel was born in County Tyrone in 1929 – Died in Donegal in 2015.
PAINTING of BRIAN FRIEL By Artist TOM BYRNE Website https://artisttombyrne.ie/
