Revenge, betrayal and murder at An Grianán – Donegal News

By Seán P. Feeny

Revenge, betrayal, murder and madness. Put all these together and you have the classic tale of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

This Wednesday the Second Age Theatre Company opens its latest production, telling the story about how Scotland’s greatest hero becomes the country’s bloodiest threat, at An Grianán Theatre.

Directed by Alan Stanford, the leading role is played by an actor who broke onto the scene last year with his breathtaking performance in the title role of Sweeney Todd at the Gate Theatre.

David Shannon is known for starring in some of the world’s most successful and celebrated musical theatre, with his leading roles having included Chris in Miss Saigon and Raoul in Phantom of the Opera in the West End.

Taking on the role of Macbeth is, however, a completely new experience for David: “The rehearsals are going really well, but I’m finding it hard, but I guess that it’s meant to be that way when you do Shakespeare for the first time,” he laughed.

“I think there’s always a role out there that you want to play and I’ve been very fortunate in my career so far that I’ve got to play a lot of the musical roles that I wanted to.

“The role of Macbeth has a very wide age range in that you can have the likes of Patrick Stewart, who is currently playing the role in London, or my age group playing the role.

“I did Macbeth for my Leaving cert so I had some knowledge, but when it was confirmed that I was playing Macbeth I remember going into Eason’s and picking up a copy of Macbeth and every page I turned to had lines of Macbeth and my stomach turned,” he laughed.

He admits that the director was taking a risk, but after he saw Sweeney Todd he decided they had to work together.

David said he is looking forward to the new challenge of not relying on his singing voice, but rather solely on his acting skills.

“My character is a hero, now he could be portrayed as a villain but he’s far from it, Macbeth gets wound up in his own ambition and there is a lot of emotion which is great for me.”

Reprieving her role as the Lady Macbeth is Catriona Ní Mhurchu, a well-known and experienced actor on the Irish Stage.

Joining Shannon and Ní Mhurchu, is a large cast of sixteen, some of whom are returning to their original parts, most notably Enda Oates, as MacDuff, and Kate Brennan as one of the three witches.

This coming production promises a much greater spectacle with stunning production values, where the company has employed a specialised fight choreographer, a videographer, a musical director and a choreographer among its production crew.

David said: “This really is an action-packed production and we have some great ‘dirty’ fights, and not clean-cut choreography, but full of vengeance and drama.”

After over a decade of working mainly in the UK, David started working in Ireland last year: “Everything is so new to me here as I have never worked in Ireland.

“It’s all very exciting and I love the fact that I’m meeting new people all the time, despite the fact that you’re always the new bloke in the room,” he laughed.

“The theatre situation in Ireland is wonderful and it’s fantastic that there’s always something exciting going on.

“You see I’m used to much longer runs of productions, here theatre is always fresh and new and there’s a great variety for all different tastes,” said David.

The actor said he is excited seeing the different theatres around Ireland, as well as visiting places that he has never been to before, such as Donegal, for example.

He said: “My sister lives in Sligo, but I have never ventured further North West to Donegal and going on this tour is taking me there so I’m looking forward to all these new experiences.”

People shouldn’t shy away from coming to this production, just because it’s Shakespeare, as David said with this production they’re ‘bringing sexy back’ into theatre.

“I wish I had seen these types of production when I was younger, there is so much you can do in theatre to make things exciting.

“I think this production of Macbeth is sexy, action-packed and is as real as Shakespeare can be and the set just looks fantastic.

“This is not your average Shakespeare and people, young and old, will hopefully enjoy the performance,” said David.

Macbeth opens on Wednesday, 23 January, and will run until Friday, 25 January, including daytime matinees.

In the theatrical world and many superstitions are associated with Macbeth, all connected with the belief that the play is somehow cursed. Many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it as ‘the Scottish Play’.

Tickets are 22 Euro/17 Euro and are available from An Grianán Box Office on Tel 9120777 or for further information log onto www.angrianan.com