PRESS RELEASE
Monday 11 January 2016
ROYAL COURT THEATRE CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT

CHRIS CORRIGAN, JULIA DEARDEN, AMY MOLLOY and WUNMI MOSAKU join
previously announced STEPHEN REA in Cyprus Avenue by David Ireland.
The full cast has been announced for the Royal Court Theatre and the Abbey Theatre
production of David Ireland’s new play Cyprus Avenue. Chris Corrigan, Julia Dearden, Amy
Molloy, Wunmi Mosaku and Stephen Rea have been cast in this Abbey Theatre commission.
Vicky Featherstone directs. Cyprus Avenue runs from Tuesday 5 April 2016 – Saturday 7
May 2016 in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Prior to its run at the Royal Court, Cyprus
Avenue will premiere at the Abbey Theatre Dublin Thursday 11 February 2016 – Saturday
19 March 2016 on the Peacock Stage.
“Without prejudice we’re nothing! If we don’t discriminate, we don’t survive!”
Eric Miller is a Belfast Loyalist. He believes his five-week old granddaughter is Gerry Adams.
His family keep telling him to stop living in the past and fighting old battles that nobody cares
about anymore but his cultural heritage is under siege. He must act.
The story of one man struggling with the past and terrified of the future.
“Gerry Adams has disguised himself as a new-born baby and successfully infiltrated my
family home.”
Design by Lizzie Clachan, Lighting by Paul Keogan and Sound by David McSeveney.
Cyprus Avenue is a Royal Court Theatre and Abbey Theatre production.
It is an Abbey Theatre Commission.
Supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor-advised fund of London Community
Foundation.
Supported by Culture Ireland as part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme.
Full listings and biography information below.
The Big Idea:
David Ireland in conversation
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Tuesday 26 April 2016, Post-show
David Ireland talks with Royal Court’s Associate Director Hamish Pirie.
The Big Idea is a strand of work launched during Open Court, offering audiences radical
thinking and provocative discussion inspired by the work on stage. The Big Idea seeks to
foster debate and collaboration, bringing together leading thinkers and artists from all walks of
life to engage with the big ideas of our times, through a series of debates and events.
AlixPartners support The Big Idea at the Royal Court Theatre.
For more information or images please contact Anoushka Hay on 0207 565 5063 /
AnoushkaHay@royalcourttheatre.com
Notes to Editors:
Press Night:
Thursday 7 April 7pm
Listings Information:
Cyprus Avenue by David Ireland
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Cyprus Avenue
By David Ireland
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tuesday 5 April – Saturday 7 May 2016
A Royal Court Theatre and Abbey Theatre production
Monday – Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday Matinees 3pm (from 9 April)
Captioned Performance 27 April 7.45pm
Press Night Thursday 7 April 7pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 (Mondays all seats £10 available from 9am online on the day of performance)
Concessions* £15 (available in advance for previews and all matinees)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts subject to availability.
David Ireland’s work includes Summertime (Tinderbox); Trouble and Shame, Most
Favoured, The End of Desire (Òran Mór); Can’t Forget About You (Lyric, Belfast) and Half a
Glass of Water (Abbey Theatre). David is the former Playwright-in-Residence at the Lyric
Theatre Belfast, and is a recent winner of the Stewart Parker BBC Radio Drama Award and
the Meyer Whitworth Award.
Vicky Featherstone is Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre. Her work for the Royal
Court includes How To Hold Your Breath; God Bless The Child; Maidan: Voices From The
Uprising; The Mistress Contract; The Ritual Slaughter Of Gorge Mastromas; Untitled
Matriarch Play and The President Has Come To See You. Her other work includes Our
Ladies Of Perpetual Succour; Enquirer; An Appointment With The Wicker Man; 27; The
Wheel; Somersaults (National Theatre of Scotland); The Small Things; Pyrenees; On
Blindness; Tiny Dynamite; Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco; Splendour; Crave (Paines Plough).
Vicky was Artistic Director of Paines Plough 1997-2005 and Artistic Director of The National
Theatre of Scotland 2005-2012. Later this year Vicky will also direct X by Alistair McDowall.
Chris Corrigan will make his debut at the Royal Court with Cyprus Avenue. His theatre
credits include Re-Energize (Derry Playhouse), The Titanic Boys (Grand Opera House),
Dockers (Lyric Belfast), Chronicles of Long Kesh (Tricycle/Waterfront Hall/CQAF/NI Tour),
Antigone, Scenes from The Big Picture (Waterfront Hall/National), The Duke of Hope
(Tinderbox/National Tour), Don Juan in Soho (Donmar Warehouse), The Wrong Man (New
Strung/ Pleasance Dome Edinburgh Fringe), Group The Musical (Pleasance Dome
Edinburgh Fringe Festival/ Lyric Belfast), Mojo Mickybo (National Tour), Militiaman (Crescent
Arts/Partisan), La Chunga (Lyric Belfast), Energy (Derry Playhouse/ National Tour) and
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Kabosh/An Granian). His film credits include Jonjo
Mickybo and The Goldfish Bowl. His television credits include Dallas with Balls, The
Musketeers, The Fall, Doctors, The Bill, Sunday and Eureka Street.
Julia Dearden’s credits at the Royal Court include Loyal Women. Other theatre credits
include Electra (Old Vic), The Homeplace (Opera House Belfast), The Crucible (Lyric
Belfast), Antigone, Scenes from The Big Picture (Waterfront Belfast), Shadows of a Gunman
(Citizens Glasgow), Much Ado About Nothing (Sheffield Crucible), Da, Mrs. Prynne (Irish
Tour), Bloody Sunday, Una Pooka, Una, The Mai (Tricycle), The Blind Fiddler (The
Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Caught Red Handed, Ruby, Pentecost
(Tinderbox), The Winter’s Tale, The Crucible, Camille (RSC), The Shaughraun (National),
Bold Girls (7:84), The Silver Tassie (Almeida), She Stoops to Conquer, Miss Julie (Salisbury
Playhouse) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Lyric). Her film credits include The Most
Fertile Man In Ireland, Wild About Harry, Titanic Town, Cal, Oranges and Lemons and The
Wayfarer. Her television credits include The Fall, Dani's Castle, Northanger Abbey, The Billy
Plays, Troubles, Family, The Nation's Health, Clarissa, The Gravy Train, Lost Belongings,
The Rag Nymph, The Knock and A Game of Soldiers.
Amy Molloy will make her Royal Court debut with Cyprus Avenue. Her Abbey Theatre
credits include John Gabriel Borkman (B.A.M Harvey Theater/Abbey). Other theatre credits
include Teaset (Barons Court/White Bear), Let Me Count the Ways (Salt/Rich Mix), Tejas
Verdes, Villa (MAC Belfast), The Parachutist (The Cockpit), Over The Bridge (Finborough),
My Cousin Rachel (Gate Dublin), Big Maggie (Druid), Belfast Girls (King’s Head), October
(Arcola), Lieutenant of Inishmore (Curve Leicester), Black Milk (Brian Friel), Kitty and
Damnation (Giant Olive/The Lion and Unicorn), Building Site (Miniaturists19/Arcola), Once a
Catholic (Lost/Upstairs at The Gatehouse), The Seagull (Chelsea), Come On Over (Tristan
Bates), and Ferris Wheel (Pleasance). Her television credits include Call The Midwife and 50
Ways to Kill Your Lover.
Wunmi Mosaku’s credits at the Royal Court include Truth and Reconciliation and The
Vertical Hour. Other theatre credits include Tiger Country (Hampstead), Mr Burns (Almeida),
Dick (Nabokov/Southwark Playhouse), Playlist (Theatre 503), Katrina (Jericho House), Ugly
Shy Girls (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Mules (Young Vic), Barbarians, Cathy and Heathcliff,
Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, A Mouthful of Birds, The Beggars Opera (RADA),
Rough Crossings (Headlong), The Great Theatre of The World (Arcola) and Richard III
(RSC/RADA). Her film credits include Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Sage and
Milo, My Baby, Pan, Philomena, Music’s in My Bones, Citadel, Stolen, Clone, Honeymooner,
I Am Slave, Womb, Women of Troy and Patience. Her television credits include Capital, In
The Flesh, Dancing on The Edge, Jo Legrand, Truckers, Black Out, Vera II, Body Farm,
Stolen, The Fuse, Vera, Father and Sons, Law & Order, Moses Jones, Silent Witness,
Doctors and The Bill.
Stephen Rea’s credits at the Royal Court include Ashes to Ashes, Captain Oates Left Stock,
Doublecross, Endgame, Freedom of the City and Geography of a Horse Dreamer. His
credits at the Abbey Theatre include Aristocrats, Kicking a Dead House and The Blue
Macushia. Other theatre credits include Action, Ecstasy, Buried Child, Communication Cord
Translation, Kingdom of the Earth, Saint Oscar, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me
(Hampstead), Crete and Sergeant Pepper, Piano, Strawberry Fields, Tales of Vienna Woods
(National), High Society (Victoria Palace), Play, That Time (Gate) and The White Devil
(Nottingham Playhouse). His film credits include A Further Gesture, All Men Are Mortal,
Angel, Bad Behaviour, Citizen X, Company of Wolves, Copenhagen, Crime of the Century,
D’Artagnan, Fear Dot Com, Interview with a Vampire, The Crying Game, Life Is Sweet,
Underworld, The Reaping, V for Vendetta, Sisters and Breakfast on Pluto. His television
credits include War & Peace, Dickensian, The Honourable Woman, Utopia, The Shadow
Line, Single-Handed, Law & Order, Father and Son and 10 Days to War. Awards include a
BAFTA and an Irish Television and Film Award for The Honourable Woman; and a Cairo
International Film Festival Award for Citizen X.
The Abbey Theatre was founded as Ireland’s national theatre, by W.B. Yeats and Lady
Gregory in 1904 “to bring upon the stage the deeper emotions of Ireland”. Although written
more than a hundred years ago, this is still the kernel of what constitutes the artistic
imperative for the Abbey Theatre today. The Abbey produces an annual programme of
diverse, engaging, innovative Irish and international theatre and invests in and promotes
new Irish writers and artists. They do this by placing the writer and theatre-maker at the
heart of all they do, commissioning and producing exciting new work and creating discourse
and debate on the political, cultural and social issues of the day. Abbey Theatre’s aim is to
present great theatre art in a national context so that the stories told on stage have a
resonance with artists and audiences alike.
Cyprus Avenue is supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor advised fund of
London Community Foundation
Coutts is the Royal Court Theatre Innovation Partner.
Coutts is the wealth division of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Coutts has a long history
of supporting the arts going back 200 years, having looked after the financial affairs of many
famous clients connected with the arts such as Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens and Chopin. In
1816, Thomas Coutts married Harriot Mellon, a popular actress of her day, and together they
became partners of a number of London Theatres, including the Drury Lane and the Royal
Opera House. Coutts has even featured in a number of artistic works including The Gondoliers
by Gilbert and Sullivan, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In
the new millennium, this tradition has continued not only through Coutts managing the
finances of many of today’s top writers, actors and musicians, but also through our arts
sponsorship programme. We are delighted to support The Royal Court and its diverse range
of ground-breaking performances. For further information please visit coutts.com