Following their successful collaboration in 2019 with Meghan Tyler’s Crocodile Fever, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre has again teamed up with Belfast’s Lyric Theatre for a new co-production written by John Morton entitled Denouement.
The work, commissioned by the Lyric, will be presented as a work-in-progress audio recording featuring performances from acclaimed actors of stage and screen. The cast will include real life couple Ian McElhinney, known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Derry Girls, and Marie Jones from In the Name of the Father, in the lead roles of Liam and Edel. Directed by Traverse Artistic co-Director Gareth Nicholls, Denouement also features performances from Patrick McBrearty, Nicky Harley and Leah McGregor with sound design and composition from Michael John McCarthy.
Denouement is set in an apocalyptic Ireland in 2048 and follows Edel (Marie Jones) and Liam (Ian McElhinney) a couple in their 60s who are facing the end of the world. They’ve been up all night trying to get their chaotic affairs in order. They’re on edge and are blasting music to drown out the noise outside as cities start to disappear and the world’s animals go haywire.
Liam is finishing memoirs that nobody will ever read. Edel is trying to say goodbye to their children vis her laptop. They are both reflecting on past regrets and trying to put them right at times outrageously.
As tempers fray, family secrets are outed and their behaviour becomes increasingly questionable, the couple tries to work out what really matters as they career towards a bickering end while the world literally falls apart around them.
The rehearsal and recording of Denouement, done in just two days under socially distanced conditions, took place at the Lyric Theatre and was the first activity to take place in the building in five months.
The play has already been shortlisted for the 2020 Popcorn Award for new writing, the winner of which will be announced on 24th August 2020.
Denouement writer John Morton said, “In the space of the last two months the play went from being an imagined glimpse into a dystopian future to a depiction of a reality not dissimilar from the one so many of us inhabit now. What remains the same is the will to move forward and making the best of the constraints we live within. It is a tremendous honour to see this version of Denouement being realised by such an incredibly talented team. It speaks of the perseverance and ingenuity of people in theatre to keep finding a way to create despite the challenging period we’re in. I am very grateful to everyone at Lyric Theatre and Traverse Theatre for supporting the play and working so hard to make it happen.”
Denouement will be available to listen to from 10am from Monday 7th September till midnight on Sunday 20th September as part of the Traverse Festival programme where almost all events are free to access with audiences encouraged to make a voluntary donation to help the Traverse Theatre and its work.
All currently available events can be found at the Traverse Festival website.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 