MILL THEATRE 10th ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION
Presented by Mill Productions
Starring
Darren Kileen as Michael Collins
Matthew O’Brien as Éamon de Valera
with Aoibhinn Finnegan, Sharon McCoy, Claire O’Donovan and a large ensemble cast.
In 1916 Michael Collins was adjutant to Joseph Plunkett and was sent to prison in Frongoch. He was twenty six years old.‘Good Evening Mr. Collins is a lighthearted yet truthful look at the life of a young man who lived in very dark times. Through music, comedy, drama and movement, it traces his adventures over the six years from 1916 to his death at Beal na mBlath in 1922.
Directed by Padraic McIntyre and produced by Mill Productions, this is the 10th anniversary show.
The play, written in 1995 by Tom MacIntyre, considers some of the more personal aspects of Michael Collins’ character. Some have described its scenes as “playful and at times surreal”. By not going into detail about the events surrounding much of the dialogue, the narrative assumes knowledge of what happened before Collins’ death. It looks at what it sees as his inner thoughts and perhaps doubts, together with his relationships with three women: Kitty Kiernan, Moya Llewelyn Davies and Hazel Lavery. There are appearances by some other well known characters including, George Bernard Shaw, Johnny Lavery, Cathal Brugha and Arthur Griffiths. The other major character in the play is Éamon de Valera, who is played as the villain of the piece, and also with some comic overtones. The presentation of the story is overlaid with a series of conversations, dreams and other images from the imaginations of the characters.
