A Whistle in the Dark | |
---|---|
Written by | Tom Murphy |
Characters | Michael Carney Harry Carney Des Carney Hugo Carney Dada Iggy Carney Betty Mush |
Date premiered | September 11, 1961 [1] |
Place premiered | Joan Littlewood's Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London. [2] |
Original language | English |
Subject | Irish diaspora, family, violence, masculinity |
Setting | a living-room in Michael's house in Coventry, c. 1961 |
A Whistle in the Dark is a play by Tom Murphy that premiered on September 11, 1961 at the Joan Littlewood's Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, having been rejected by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. [3] It then went on to be a West End hit. [4] Murphy was twenty-five years old at the time. [5] [6]
The play tells the story in three acts of the climactic confrontation between Michael, the oldest of the Carney sons, and his father and brothers, a brawling, hard-drinking, criminal gang of Irish immigrants living and working in Coventry. A powerful portrayal of tribal violence and the devastation it brings in its wake in spite of attempts to stand against it, it remains Murphy's best known and most performed play. John Lahr of The Village Voice saw its influence in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming. [7] Other plays showing its influence are Gary Mitchell's In a Little World of Our Own , Rod Wooden's Your Home In The West and Jimmy Murphy’s The Kings of The Kilburn High Road
In 2005,Toronto's The Company Theatre (TCT) chose A Whistle in the Dark for its debut production at Canadian Stage's Berkeley Street Theatre. Helmed by Irish director Jason Byrne, the show played for three weeks in Toronto with an all-star cast of Canadian actors: [9]
Stage Manager Robert Harding joined the creative team as stage manager, with Kinnon Elliott as his assistant stage manager. Set and costume designer John Thompson and lighting designer Andrea Lundy rounded out the team. Thompson would go on to work extensively with TCT, designing sets for Marion Bridge (2007), Festen (2008), Through the Leaves (2010), The Test (2011), and Speaking in Tongues (2012/13). [10]
A Whistle in the Dark was named "Best of 2005" in multiple Canadian newspapers, including The Globe and Mail , National Post , Now Magazine , and eye weekly . Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star called it "the most muscular piece of theatre we've seen in Toronto in some time," going on to add that "[The Company Theatre's] choice of a worthy play, a first-class director and an excellent cast show it knows what it takes to make good drama." [11]
The production received two 2005 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations in the Independent Theatre category: Outstanding Production and Outstanding Lead Performance Male for Joseph Ziegler. [12]
In 2007, TCT remounted A Whistle in the Dark with Jason Byrne directing. Much of the cast remained the same, though Richard Clarkin took on the role of Iggy Carney and Dylan Roberts played Mush. The show played at LSPU Hall in St. John's, Newfoundland in March and at Toronto's Young Centre for the Performing Arts in April of that year.
BBC Radio 3 gave the first radio broadcast on 20 December 2009, directed by Roland Jaquarello. [13]
Tom Murphy was an Irish dramatist who worked closely with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and with Druid Theatre, Galway. He was born in County Galway, Ireland and later lived in Dublin.
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