), Andrea Irvine and Amy Molloy in Cyprus Avenue, What’s the most successful exercise for you when writing a play? Cyprus Avenue was a brilliant show and eternal thanks to you for it. Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2016 for Cyprus Available for everyone, funded by readers. in 2017. I hope we see them emerging strong and triumphant when this is all over. They really intensely hated it. In a possible sign of softening, for the new production of Cyprus Avenue, Ireland is rewriting the opening scene to remove the N-word, after a cast member expressed unease. I didn’t quite get to that level of genius but I did ok with my limited talent. Some pernicious discontent. “I think most playwrights are against trigger warnings because they remove the tension,” says Ireland. The theatre asked for trigger warnings. And some people in Dublin seemed to feel attacked by it, perhaps understandably. But then I don’t live there anymore, so maybe I’m missing something. I watch other people’s plays, which don’t end in violence, and I think, ‘How do they do that?’”, The fight over identity that drives his plays was fired by his teenage interest in theatre. David Ireland was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. This was followed by End of Desire (Oran Mor), Yes So I Said Yes (Ransom), Half a Glass of Water (Field Day), Most Favoured (Traverse) Can't Forget About You (Lyric) and The Hen Night (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). To my surprise, the early audiences in London embraced it with great enthusiasm and saw it as a universal play about war and madness. “No” is a really important word in the play and it’s a really important word in the history of Ulster unionism. In the play, Eric keep saying “No” and does not seem to “accept” anything other than Ulster and Unionism. agendaNi is Northern Ireland’s leading business and public policy magazine which reaches over 7,000 decision-makers and influencers in government, business and the voluntary and community sector. To be kept updated with news and articles from the Royal Court join our mailing list, Please enter you first name, Please enter you last I walk a lonely path.). People have always said my plays were “too Belfast-specific” but I don’t even think about that. Hear @MichaelAodhan Northern Ireland Retail Conso… https://t.co/ldGpn4YMVW, EU-UK Joint Committee to meet again on 19 October https://t.co/Uhd9igGLN7. That was very strange.”, Keen to escape the violence in Belfast, he applied to drama school in London, but was rejected for all the courses there and ended up in Glasgow, where he still lives. To be honest, I feel like I’m only ever writing for a Belfast audience. (Bear in mind, I’m an Ulster Protestant living on the south side of Glasgow, surrounded by Scottish theatre makers who regard Nicola Sturgeon as a modern day Bolivar. Conservatoire of Scotland). There’s a Belfast hyper-specificity in Cyprus Avenue, with conflict, jokes and language that may be lost on people who aren’t from Northern Ireland. Eric has worked hard all his life to become middle class, to become urbane, but he can’t escape his violent heritage, his true nature. He has worked as an actor with many theatre companies across the UK including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Manchester Royal Exchange, the Citizens Theatre Glasgow and the Traverse, Edinburgh. “I felt like I was writing a lot about Northern Ireland and I was writing Belfast voices but I felt disconnected from Belfast and I felt a need to reconnect with the place and find out what was going on here. In 2009, Ireland's What The Animals Say was produced by Òran Mór in Glasgow. Still my favourite, still the best. (Masayo, Luxembourg). Playwright David Ireland was born in Belfast and trained and worked as an actor. David Ireland’s story about a Belfast loyalist is a blackly comic examination of sectarian hatred – and a subversive drama that has never been more relevant. Contact Us. Writer. He then attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, before receiving training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. His next play is a ‘wild, dark comedy’ about paedophilia – which seems likely to upset more theatregoers, “It’s come up in conversations,” he says. And Tom Murphy came to the opening night in Dublin and he was very generous about the play. And yet, I’m undeniably influenced by so much of the Irish canon – especially O’Casey, Wilde, Beckett and Joyce. Why do you think the play resonates and translates so well to other countries/cultures? I’ve touched on this to some extent in a previous question. I assumed I would never work in London as an actor so I tended to ignore it. “I think the trouble is if you write something that could be seen as vaguely touching upon the subject of sectarianism or the Troubles, it’s sensitive but also people think it is clichéd and they’ve heard it all before. He won the Stewart Parker Award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2016. David Ireland hasn’t slept. “I’m going to have to thank him for his cheque when I see him. independenttalent.com. I called it that so those who are easily offended would stay away. I always loved the New York I grew up watching onscreen and I came back to Britain feeling sad and betrayed. I’ve no idea what he thought of it. “I don’t know all the legal ins and outs. American won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, a Cyprus Avenue was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre Dublin. He’s the main influence. Continue browsing if that’s OK, or find out more about our policy and how to manage your cookies, to be kept up to date with news and announcements from the Royal Court. David was Playwright – in – Residence at the Lyric Theatre Belfast 2011-2012. And I didn’t know it had a trigger warning until I came to see it. York/Soho, London), Yes So I Said Yes I was living on Castlereagh Street when I started work on the play, a ten minute walk from Cyprus Avenue. Eric, in David Ireland’s play Cyprus Avenue, is clearly in some way demented, but Stephen Rea makes him a complex and even moving examination of the consequences of one people being raised to hate another. I grew up listening to Clubsound and Jimmy Young. The Irish-Americans turned out in force and were completely horrified and confused by it. The Lyric’s Artistic Director Richard Croxford commented: 'We are truly delighted that local writer David Ireland will be our first Playwright-in-Residence in the new building. Also, I discovered Eminem and Sophocles at the same point in my life and I think that might explain a lot. Maybe he will now! But I said no.”, The writer was born in 1976, in Belfast’s Sandy Row, a heartland of the Orange Order and loyalist paramilitaries. It is an “exciting time”, says Ireland, with performances by Branagh and Rob Brydon scheduled for the opening week. I love Belfast humour. An Abbey Theatre commission. “Ironically, I got the Lyric job just after moving back to Glasgow recently. But no Gerry. He was always a hero of mine so it was a privilege to meet him. Playwright David Ireland Notes. However, he isn’t feeling too much pressure so far: “Sometimes you sit down and it all comes out, and other times writing a play is extremely difficult and requires a lot of work. Although I think one reason the Royal Court is doing Cyprus Avenue again is that they think it’s relevant. “So the starting question was, ‘Am I Irish?’ And I still haven’t come up with a satisfactory answer for myself.”. 2020 Peter Crawley for all his infuriating flaws, hit on something with his review in The Irish Times. Engaging the Northern Ireland Assembly 2020: Meet the speakers name, Please select a newsletter to sign up David Mamet. Irish Times Award for Best New Play and the James Tait Black Award The stage itself has some kind of magic about it. I’ve always believed that. In the film, the audience’s reaction to the violence – stunned silence, some turning away in horror, occasional hysterical laughter, slight resentment – that seems to me what the reaction was like everywhere. Mon 18 Feb 2019 09.09 EST But I don’t. He has recently won the James Tait Black … There’s a quote I read one time which I think came from Michel Tremblay – “the more parochial you are, the more universal you become”. In a Dublin cafe, the morning after the opening night of his new play Cyprus Avenue, the Northern Irish-born playwright and actor is … It’s patronising to me and to the Protestant Unionist Loyalist community. I’ve always loved Cyprus Avenue and dreamed about living there, even as a boy. https://www.agendani.com/looking-forward-to-lyric-david-ireland Cradling his grandchild for the first time, a man looks into the baby’s face and sees the bearded, bespectacled features of Gerry Adams, former president of Sinn Féin. Charity Number: SC036767. So I thought he was unlikely to come after us.” He laughs loudly. Is it really stuck in a mindless rut from which it can never escape? He writes with great humour, integrity and credibility. 4298  It comes back to war and madness, I guess. He accepts that growing up during the Troubles has made a “deep impact” on his plays. Plays I got such a shock. He has recently won the James Tait Black Prize Award for Cyprus Avenue. I only realised how significant it was to have a play on at the Royal Court when I started telling other writer friends about it and they would go pale with jealousy. “Maybe he will now!”, Having initially regarded Cyprus Avenue as a play “about the state of unionism”, Ireland is now surprised to see it contains a private subtext.

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