Druid Theatre Company's Sydney bound production of 'The Playboy of the Western World' will make no compromises for an Australian audience.
The Druid Theatre Company is bringing the John Millington Synge classic 'The Playboy of the Western World' to Australia.
What they'll make of it all in Crocodile Dundee Land, time alone will tell.
The Druid Theatre Company already enjoys a high reputation in Australia having staged a production of Tom Murphy's 'Conversations on a Homecoming' under the direction of Garry Hynes at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre in January 1987.
The Sydney Festival Committee invited Druid to top the bill for the Bicentennial Festival and the Galway based group intends to raise the rafters.
In their final rehearsals, we were given a foretaste of their bone-crushing realism with which the Playboy will be presented down under.
Druid first staged The Playboy of the Western World twelve years ago and since then have performed productions in London, Edinburgh and New York providing Druid with an international stature. The driving force behind the show is Garry Hynes, who says that Australian audiences will be seeing the play exactly has it has been presented in towns and villages throughout Ireland.
We're not preparing the Playboy for Sydney. We're preparing the Playboy and it's going to play in Sydney.
Taking the Playboy to Australia has involved a massive logistical operation with costumes and props being shipped out over two months ago. The show will have a twenty-one night run in the 550 seater York Theatre in Sydney. It is estimated that the overall cost of the tour will be in the region of £175,000 with financial assistance coming from the Department of Foreign Affairs as the production is part of Ireland's contribution to the bicentennial celebrations.
For the cast including Seán McGinley, Marie Mullen John Cowley, Maeve Germaine, and Lorcan Cranitch, the tour is an exciting and challenging adventure.
Actor Seán McGinley believe director Garry Hynes production of the play is,
First of all being faithful to Synge's intentions in the play what she does and what she tries to do is to release the performances and point them in a certain way.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 4 January 1988. The reporter is Jim Fahy.
