November to February 2010-2011 | A season of rediscovered plays

NORTHERN STAR

by Stewart Parker

Sundays and Mondays, 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21 February 2011

SOLD OUT FOR THE ENTIRE RUN. See our returns policy here.

The Great Britain premiere

**** FOUR STARS, TIME OUT

Part of RediscoveriesUK – A three month season of rediscovered plays by writers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

“'Twas the night before Harry was stretched. And the boys they all paid him a visit”.

Never before performed in Great Britain, renowned Ulster playwright Stewart Parker's Northern Star opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of six Sunday and Monday performances as part of RediscoveriesUK, a three month season of rediscovered plays by writers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

After the disaster of the 1798 rebellion, Henry Joy McCracken, one of Irish history's most charming political rebels, sits awake in a half burnt-out cottage in Ulster. His child and lover sleep nearby with plans of an escape to America. Outside a Phantom Bride guards the gate of the ramshackle safe house. Henry awaits his imminent execution, but he needs to perfect his final speech to the citizens of Belfast…

The night brings with it ghosts of friends and foes from Ireland's past – both North and South – to recall the seven ages of his life, from youthful idealism to disillusion and despair. Each age is presented in the style of a famous Irish writer, from Boucicault and Wilde, to Behan and Beckett, in a comic, terrifying and moving journey through the missed opportunities of Irish history.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Playwright Stewart Parker (1941–1988) remains one of Ulster’s most acclaimed playwrights. His first internationally successful play for the stage was Spokesong (1975) which won the 1976 Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award. Parker then embarked on a decade of writing that saw his vision of Northern Ireland’s past and present take flight. His other works include Kingdom Come and Catchpenny Twist (1977), Pratt's Fall (1981) Northern Star (1984), Heavenly Bodies (1986) and Pentecost (1987), winner of the Harvey's Irish Theatre Award.

ABOUT THE ACTORS

Helen Belbin's theatre includes: Lady Chatterley’s Boys, in development at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith; The Trial of Marie Antoinette (Once Theatre); Beauty & the Beast (Puppet Lab); A Christmas Carol (St George’s West Players); Battle in the Hills, The Storm Watchers (Theatre Enigma); Radio includes: HR; The Saturday Review (BBC Radio 4)

Adam Best's theatre includes By the Bog of Cats (Wyndham’s Theatre), Truckstop
(Company of Angels), Journey's End (Original Theatre Company) and Pieces of Vincent (Arcola Theatre). Television includes Waking the Dead, Silent Witness, Holby City , The Catherine Tate Christmas Special, The Bill. Radio includes John Walkers Blues.
Film includes BLOODED and Cup Cake.

Michael Byers' theatre includes Grease (Union Theatre) and Fiasco: The Comical (Old Sorting Office, Barnes). Television includes Hollyoaks and The Message. Film includes Capturing Mary.

Anthony Delaney trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama, credits include Assassins, directed by Michael Strassen and Sasha Regan's All-Male Iolanthe (Union Theatre), A Wife To James Whelan (Charm Offensive Theatre Company - rehearsed reading) and Embers (Lion & Unicorn).

Gemma-Leah Devereux trained at the Arts Educational Schools. Theatre includes The Dreamers of Inishdara (Jermyn Street Theatre). Television includes The Tudors and Marú.

Jonathan Harden's recent theatre credits include Keem (Arcola Theatre) and Safety/That Dark Place (Theatre503). Jonathan's screen credits include features Dreams of a Life and Ghost Machine, TV movies Five Minutes of Heaven and the Emmy award-winning Small Island (both BBC), Sketch Show LOL (BBCNI) and Boy (Channel 4). He is also a seasoned voice actor, most recently providing the voice of Xenophilius Lovegood for Harry Potter 7 (EA) and is a regular in BBC radio drama.

Mark Edel-Hunt's theatre includes See How They Run (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Richard III (Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), Swimming with Sharks (Vaudeville Theatre) and The Importance of Being Earnest (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich). Film includes Brideshead Revisited.

Clare McMahon graduated from Central last year. Her credits since include The Cherry Orchard, An Ideal Husband (Greenwich Playhouse) and This Property Is Condemned (Gambit Belfast).

Sean Pol McGreevy's theatre includes The Pajama Game (Union Theatre), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Andrew’s Lane Theatre, Dublin),The Picture of Dorian Grey (Lyric Studio Theatre, Belfast), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Landor Theatre) and Rent (Olympia Theatre, Dublin). Television includes I Fought the Law.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Winner of the Buzz Goodbody Best Director Award, director Caitlin McLeod directed And I And Silence, a new play by Naomi Wallace, as part of the Finborough Theatre’s Vibrant – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights in 2010. Her previous productions include One Short Sleepe (South Bank Literary Festival) the UK premiere of Elephant's Graveyard (Warwick Arts Centre) which went on to win five awards at the National Student Drama Festival, The Lady's Not For Burning (Warwick Arts Centre) and Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children (Capital Centre Studio). Assistant Direction includes The Talented Mr Ripley (Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton) and working with the National Student Drama Festival ensemble on Touched (North Wall Theatre, Oxford and Latitude Festival).

THE PRESS ON STEWART PARKER

“A freewheeling, lunatic sense of invention is harnessed to a cultivated, literary imagination and stoked up by moral outrage.” John Peter, Sunday Times

“Mr. Parker speaks to the present through the past, using comedy, satire, parody and a seriousness that is nonetheless deadly for its being lightly drawn...Seldom has Irish history been so provocatively or so entertainingly drawn on the stage.” Irish Times

“Stewart Parker's death robbed Belfast of its most distinctive and entertaining dramatists.” Culture Northern Ireland

THE PRESS ON NORTHERN STAR

“One of the most memorable nights I ever spent at the theatre” The Guardian

“A remarkable virtuoso achievement…It would help to regard Irish history as a 'comedy of terrors', an image which occurs in Stewart Parker's elegant, witty and moving Northern Star.” The Observer

“The style of the play keeps the audience going, with wit never far away and great variety.” Philip Fisher, The British Theatre Guide

“Director Caitlin McLeod, who has an eye for a striking image, marshals a large cast playing innumerable parts with ease. She is well served by her actors and also a pair of musicians who bring an Irish aura to the evening on assorted instruments.” Philip Fisher, The British Theatre Guide

“The consistently charming Jonathan Harden.” Philip Fisher, The British Theatre Guide

“Deeply rewarding for the late, lamented Stewart Parker's lush, poetic language, the portrait of a fascinating historical figure and the sad light that it sheds on Ireland today when even though peace has broken out, there is still an uneasy feeling that it may break down at any moment.” Philip Fisher, The British Theatre Guide