The Last Hotel – a new production from Landmark Productions and Wide Open Opera - reunites composer Donnacha Dennehy and the writer and director Enda Walsh who first worked together on Walsh’s Misterman.
A man silently mops the floor, the water is - rather alarmingly - bloody. The hotel room he is supposed to be preparing is not ready yet. A woman is meeting a man and his wife in the hotel’s car park.The three of them are nervous. Tonight there will be a death.
Such is, in brief summary, the baleful premise of The Last Hotel, whose Irish premiere takes place on Sunday 27 September as part of Dublin Theatre Festival. This Dublin run will follow the world premiere due to take place at the Edinburgh International Festival in August.
“Enda Walsh has provided me with an extraordinary libretto that has sent me on routes that have even surprised me, “ says composer Donnacha Dennehy.
“It is a thrilling, devastating, sometimes hilariously absurd scenario that eats in to you. Both Enda and I feel very lucky to be making this opera with such a great team of singers, musicians and designers.” Enda Walsh describes The Last Hotel as a 'haunted suburban story.' “ Given Donnacha's interpretation of it will, I'm sure, be shattering.”
Conducted by Alan Pierson, the opera stars Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley and Walsh’s long-time collaborator, actor Mikel Murfi. The opera is accompanied by the 12-strong Crash Ensemble, founded by Dennehy. The New York Times described the Crash Ensemble as ‘the Irish new-music band that plays with the energy and spirit of a rock group.’
Aside from Edinburgh and Dublin, The Last Hotel will also play the Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio Theatre, London for six performances this October. In January 2016 the production will play at the Tobacco Warehouse, on the waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York while an international is tour planned for 2016-17.
The Last Hotel opens in Dublin on September 27 2015 at OReilly Theatre, Belvedere, with further performances onSept 29-30 and Oct 2-3 www.thelasthotel.ie
