DruidShakespeare in New York

Tony-Award winning director Garry Hynes and Ireland’s Druid Theatre Company brought Shakespeare to the Lincoln Center Festival this summer. Making their fourth appearance at the festival, Druid Theatre Company debuted their epic DruidShakespeare: The History Plays in New York July 7th.
The seven-hour production condenses Shakespeare’s “Henriad,” Richard II, Henry IV (parts 1 & 2), and Henry V. Thirteen actors perform multiple roles through the production, which first played in Galway in May. Hynes and screenwriter Mark O’Rowe developed the epic into a distinctly Irish interpretation, marking Druid’s first tackling of Shakespeare.
“I’m personally attracted to the histories, because of what they tell us about things that interest me in the theater – family, fathers and sons, the mix of the great kings and those outsiders at the tavern. These plays felt very Irish to me,” Hynes told The New York Times.
Druid Theatre celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, first found-ed in Galway by Hynes, Marie Mullen, and Mick Lally. ♦