John Breen (playwright)

John Breen is a playwright from Limerick, Ireland. He is famous for his play Alone it Stands[1] which tells the tale of Munster Rugby Team's legendary 12-0 victory over New Zealand's mighty All Blacks in Thomond Park, Limerick in 1978. In the play six actors play 62 roles including the Munster team, the Kiwis, the two coaches, the ref, the crowd, the press, a pregnant woman, several children and a dog. The Play has made it onto Broadway and this shows the immense talent of this fine playwright.

His other well-known play is Charlie,[2] a work on Charles Haughey, the former Irish Taoiseach, who visits a small farmer in County Mayo on his way from launching what was to become the Céide Fields project. As the two men talk, Haughey's remarkable rise and fall is acting out in flashback around them.

Now based in New York John Breen was Artistic Director Second Age Theatre Company in Dublin until April 2014. Previously he was artistic Director TEAM Theatre and Yew Theatre Productions in Mayo a post he held for ten years.

Directing work includes Someone Who'll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness for Island Theatre Company Limerick, The Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard, Gallileo by Berthold Brecht, Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Town by Thornton Wilder and The Pillars of Society by Henrik Ibsen, all at the City Arts Centre, Dublin. For Yew Tree: Alone it Stands by John Breen, Big Maggie by John B. Keane, Grand by Max Hafler, Charlie by John Breen, Village Wooing By George Bernard Shaw, The Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge, Mrs Warren’s Profession by G. Bernard Shaw, Sarah’s Comfort by Niamh Mc Grath, Fr Mathew by Sean Mc Carthy and The Magic Boy by John Breen John’s play Falling out of love was directed by Mikel Murfi for Yew Tree in 2007.

For TEAM Devotion by Leo Butler, Skin and Blisters by Audrey O Reilly, Light Signals by Paul Meade, Doughnuts by Eoin Byrne, Sherbet and Tiffin by Pauline Shanahan. Most recently John Directed Othello for Second Age


John is currently under commission by the Irish Film Board/Lunar films to adapt his stage play Alone it stands into a feature film.

References

  1. ↑ Myers, Kevin (January 27, 2001). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  2. ↑ Fricker, Karen (25 April 2003). The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/apr/25/theatre.artsfeatures. Retrieved 4 August 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.274409

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