Social Pictures: The launch of Druid’s most ambitious production yet at the GPO

By Sarah Gill
24th Mar 2023

Brian McEvoy

Social Pictures: The launch of Druid’s most ambitious production yet at the GPO

At the event, An Post unveiled a new collection of stamps in honour of Sean O'Casey.

Theatre lovers gathered at the GPO for the launch of DruidO’Casey, a play cycle of Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy directed by Garry Hynes.

When was it?

Tuesday, 20 March.

Where was it?

The event was hosted by An Post, and took place in the historic surrounds of the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, Dublin.

Why were we there?

The event served as a grand launch for Druid’s most ambitious production yet. With DruidO’Casey, audiences will experience The Plough and the Stars, The Shadow of a Gunman, and Juno and the Paycock like never before.

A century ago, Ireland was reborn in the fires of rebellion and war. The playwright Sean O’Casey bore witness to these seismic events and dramatised them as the Dublin Trilogy, three great works of Irish theatre, full of history, humanity and humour.

One hundred years later, Druid will weave O’Casey’s three plays into an epic theatrical event of conflict, national identity and the human toll of war, DruidO’Casey, Druid’s most ambitious
production yet and one of the greatest Irish stories ever told.

Audiences will experience O’Casey’s work like never before, directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes. The three plays will be performed together in one day, drawing parallels between an Irish past and an international present. A limited number of single-play
performances will also take place.

DruidO’Casey begins with The Plough and the Stars, the story of newlyweds Jack and Nora Clitheroe living in a city on the brink of rebellion in 1916. In The Shadow of a Gunman, Donal Davoren, Seumas Shields and Minnie Powell find themselves tragically tangled up in the Irish War of Independence. The saga ends with Juno and the Paycock and the Boyle family who see their fortunes dashed amidst the upheaval of the Irish Civil War.

The world premiere of DruidO’Casey will take place at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway this July as part of Galway International Arts Festival. It will then travel to the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.