09 March - 14 March, 2010
Nuns Island Theatre
THE HEAD OF RED O’BRIEN
THE HEAD OF RED O’BRIEN
Written By Mark O’ Halloran
Performed By John O Dowd
8pm
Tuesday March 9th To Sunday 14th 2010
Nun's Island Theatre, Galway
TrueWest Theatre Company
truewesttheatre@hotmail.com
John O Dowd (087)8230633
Performed by John O Dowd
Directed by Rae Visser
'The Head of Red O'Brien' takes place in a hospital room, where the character of the title is recovering from a near-fatal assault by his wife. The nature of the injury, arising from a frenzied knife attack, has left O'Brien without any of the cognitive processing skills. Slowly, however, they have returned. Now, on the eve of his imminent checkout, O'Brien gets the opportunity to evaluate his life,as his desires, regrets and hopes are affectionately analyzed.
Writer, Mark O Halloran crafts a tragic-comedy in which ‘Red O Brien’ reflectson the disintegration of his relationship with his wife while displaying passionate storytelling on subjects as diverse as Sean Connery, James Joyce to the ‘Cold war’. At times moving and tragic, at others funny and warm, The Head of Red O Brien is the journey of a wounded and sensitive man from conflict to resolution, ultimately towards a higher realization.The audience is further immersed into the mind of O’ Brien by the use of specially commissioned evocative imagery and sound from the visual artist Ronan Casey and by composer/musical artist Mark Long.The combination of live theatre merged with music and video artistry promises to be a uniquely captivating experience. This will be the first time this work has been presented outside Dublin.
