For anyone that loves Derry Girls and In Bruges.
With news that Season 2 of Derry Girls has completed filming, fans of Lisa McGee’s wonderful show are all asking the same thing, when can we see it?
Given the popularity of the superb debut season, that question is perfectly apt but fans of Foyleside’s funniest foul-mouthed character won’t have too wait long to see Jamie-Lee O’Donnell at work.
After impressing alongside Jennifer Barry (The Young Offenders) in Girls and Dolls, O’Donnell will be returning to the theatre because she has just been cast in The Gaiety’s new production of Martin McDonagh’s beloved play, The Cripple of Inishmaan.
We’ve already discussed how her wonderful performance as Michelle in Derry Girls is a fully-formed work of comedic genius, but when combined with McDonagh’s incredible knack for dialogue, this could be something special.
Granted, it’s very likely that film fans will associate McDonagh with his work on the big screen – he wrote and directed In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – but the Oscar-winner has a long association with theatre.
In fact, McDonagh crafted The Leenane Trilogy ( The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West), The Aran Islands Trilogy (The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Banshees of Inisheer), and countless others.
With regards to the plot, The Cripple of Inishmaan is set on the small Aran Islands community of Inishmaan (Inis Meáin) off the Western Coast of Ireland in 1934, where the inhabitants are excited to learn of a Hollywood film crew’s arrival in neighbouring Inishmore (Inis Mór) to make a documentary about life on the islands.
“Cripple” Billy Claven, eager to escape the gossip, poverty and boredom of Inishmaan, vies for a part in the film, and to everyone’s surprise, the orphan and outcast gets his chance…. or so some believe.
The adaptation will be directed by Andrew Flynn who recently directed the hugely successful production of McDonagh’s beloved play, A Skull in Connemara.
With regards to The Cripple of Inishmaan, here’s the cast in full; Catherine Walsh (Dancing at Lughnasa, Playboy of the Western World) as Kate, Norma Sheahan (Moone Boy, Bridget & Eamon) as Eileen, Phelim Drew (Once, The Plough and the Stars) as Johnnypatteenmike, Ruairi Heading (Borstal boy, Haughey Gregory) as Cripple Billy, Ian O’Reilly (Padraic in Moone Boy) as Bartley, Jamie Lee O’Donnell (Michelle in Derry Girls, Girls and Dolls) as Slippy Helen, Sean Fox (Taken Down) as Babbybobby, John Olohan (King of the Castle, Father Ted, Glenroe) as Doctor with Rosaleen Linehan (The Red Shoes, The Dead, David Copperfield, Woyzeck in Winter) as Mammy.
The play will be performed from Friday 25 January for a limited season and tickets will cost €18.50 (inc €1 restoration levy).
More information can be found here.
This is bound to be extremely popular.
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