Cillian Murphy is to renew his creative theatrical partnership with Enda Walsh, in a new adaptation of Max Porter's Grief is the Thing with Feathers.
The show will be made by the Complicité theatre company, with Walsh directing and Murphy in the lead role. The pair have previously worked together on Disco Pigs, Ballyturk and Misterman.
It opens in Galway’s Black Box Theatre on March 20th, 2018 and runs until March 24th, before touring to the O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin from March 28th to April 5th. Tickets will go on sale on December 8th at 2pm.
The show is a coproduction between Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival, along with a team of venues including the Barbican, Cork Opera House, Edinburgh International Festival, Oxford Playhouse, St Ann’s Warehouse and Warwick Arts Centre.
The play follows two young boys who are struggling to deal with their mother’s sudden death. They are visited by a character called Crow, played by Murphy, who is by turns an antagonist, trickster, healer and babysitter.
Murphy says he "couldn't be any more excited about the prospect of making this piece of work…. Grief is the Thing with Feathers truly broke my heart when I first read it and it will be a privilege to bring it to life on stage in Ireland. Complicité's work on stage has inspired me for many years, and it is always a joy to get in a room with my most trusted collaborator and friend Enda Walsh."
Max Porter said: "I cannot think of a company I would rather see adapting Grief is The Thing With Feathers for stage than Complicité . . . Enda Walsh and Cillian Murphy are a phenomenal creative partnership. I have seen with my own eyes the magic of their collaborative practice. The way they think and speak about my text, about family and poetry, about humans and birds, gives me total faith in this production."
