BY SEÁN P. FEENY
Aristocrats is a co-production with the recently established Workhouse Productions and is An Grianán’s second Friel project of 2011, following on from its very well received readings of Volunteers and The Gentle Island during the Earagail Arts Festival.
Workhouse Productions founder, Letterkenny native Iarla McGowan directs while the cast features well-known actor Gerard McSorley as the family patriarch as well as Sean Hanrahan, Jamie Menard, Lifford Players stalwart Sean McCormack, Chris O’Shea, Orla McGranaghan, Shaun Byrne, Clare McMahon, Maura Logue and Elaine Gillespie.
One of the big roles of the play, Casimir, has fallen to British actor Chris O’Shea who his making his debut with Workhouse and performing in Ireland for the first time.
A graduate of the famous Central School of Speech and Drama in London, O’Shea said like doing Shakespeare at the Globe in Cambridge, it doesn’t get any better than performing a Friel play in Donegal.
“This was my first chance to audition for a Friel play and I am so delighted I got the job. Performing Friel in Donegal is a massive opportunity you cannot miss in my line of work and it’s certainly a great honour, especially considering the prospect that the man himself may come to the production at An Grianán, which is also daunting,” he laughed.