The endlessly versatile Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, fresh from the global box-office smash Avengers: Infinity War and West End triumph in an acclaimed revival of Harold Pinter's play The Birthday Party, returns to Irish screens in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's unconventional portrait of Hugh Lane.
Written by Adam & Paul and Viva screenwriter Mark O'Halloran, Citizen Lane is an innovative mix of documentary and drama, offering a vivid portrait one of the most fascinating and yet enigmatic figures in modern Irish history. Lawlor portrays Cork-born art dealer and philanthropist Hugh Lane, a man of multiple contradictions, by turns infuriatingly parsimonious or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight of the realm; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts.
The drama (which co-stars Michael Gambon, Marty Rae and Derbhle Crotty) is intercut with interviews from contemporary documentary contributors such as historian Professors Roy Foster and Paul Rouse and Art Historian Morna O’Neill, who offer a narrative richly illustrated by the paintings of his collection with a twist in its tail in the long-running campaign to recover for Ireland Lane’s Bequest of 39 great impressionist paintings, amongst them works by Monet, Renoir and Manet.
Citizen Lane is in Irish cinemas from May 18th.
