DRUID Three Short Comedies by Seán O’Casey

Theatre

Tuesday 25 February 2025

€20 - €35 + Facility Fee

'Saint Correlliolanus, come on, and deliver us from utther desthruction!'

In spring 2025, Druid are hitting the road once more for an 11-venue national tour of Three Short Comedies by Seán O'Casey.

Following a run of these comedies in 2021 and more recently a visit with O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman in 2024, Druid return to the National Opera House in Wexford with these classic rip-roaring one-act plays by one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights.

Set in a post office, A Pound on Demand (1939) is the tale of Jerry and Sammy who badly need a quick injection of cash to continue their night on the town.

In Bedtime Story (1951), poor John Jo Mulligan learns the hard way that inviting members of the opposite sex to Miss Mossie's lodging house comes with serious consequences.

All hell breaks loose in The End of the Beginning (1937) when Darry Berrill and his wife Lizzie agree to swap their household roles - and that's before Darry's clumsy friend Barry arrives.

These short tales of misadventure will be directed by Garry Hynes and performed by Druid ensemble members Marie Mullen, Rory Nolan and Marty Rea, alongside Venetia Bowe, Caitríona Ennis and Liam Heslin.

Since 1975, Druid have been criss-crossing the country to bring world-class theatre to audiences in their own communities. This new national tour marks the beginning of their 50th anniversary programme in 2025.

Three Short Comedies by Seán O'Casey | Spring 2025 National Tour | Trailer

★★★★ ‘wildly entertaining … high-energy and refreshing’

- The Irish Times

VENETIA BOWE
Druid: Three Short Comedies by Sean O’Casey (2021), Sorry, Wrong Number, Druid Gregory.

Other theatre credits include: Reunion (Landmark Productions/Galway International Arts Festival); Lost Lear (Dan Colley/Dublin Theatre Festival); Danti-Dan (Livin’Dred); Asking for It (Landmark Productions/The Everyman/Birmingham Rep); Much Ado About Nothing (Rough Magic); Womb (Outlandish Theatre Platform); Hotel Happiness (Chaos Factory); This Beach (Brokentalkers); Nora (Corn Exchange).

Screen credits include: Mutt, Nobody There But Me, Joyce's Women, Cold Courage, The Fall of the House of Piecraft, BBC Imagine: Edna O’Brien, Five Letters to a Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain, Wishbone.

CAITRÍONA ENNIS
Druid: Druid O’Casey: Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy.

Other theatre credits include: Duck Duck Goose, Spinning, Outrage (Fishamble); 14 Voices from the Bloodied Field, The Country Girls, A Holy Show, Ulysses, Porcelain (Abbey Theatre); The Fall of the Second Republic (The Corn Exchange/Abbey Theatre); Cuckoo (Soho Theatre); Dublin by Lamplight (The Corn Exchange/Abbey Theatre); A Christmas Carol, Mabel’s Magnificent Flying Machine (Gate Theatre); Test Dummy (Theatre Upstairs); The Table (Magnetic North); Wild Sky (The Performance Corporation); Angel Meadow (ANU/Home Manchester); Annabelle Star (The Ark); Scuttlers (The Royal Exchange, Manchester); Thirteen, The Boys of Foley Street (ANU); Sluts (WeGetHighOnThis); The Lark (Smock Alley Theatre).

Screen credits include: Blue Moon, Like Me, We Ourselves, Kissing Candice, Northern Lights, Clean Sweep, Dawn.

LIAM HESLIN
Druid: The House, Druid O’Casey: Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy, Three Short Comedies by Sean O’Casey (2021), The Seagull, Druid Gregory.

Other theatre credits include: Staging the Treaty, Zero Hour, Pals: The Irish at Gallipoli (ANU Productions); The Chief (Decadent Theatre); Duck Duck Goose (Fishamble); 14 Voices from the Bloodied Field (Abbey Theatre); Asking For It (Landmark Productions); A Skull in Connemara (Oldham Coliseum); The Lost O’Casey (ANU Productions/Abbey Theatre); The Shaughraun (Smock Alley Theatre); The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith/Gaiety Theatre); The Good Father (Rise Productions); The Plough and the Stars (Abbey Theatre); On Corporation Street (ANU Productions/Home Manchester); King Lear (Second Age Theatre Company); East of Berlin (Brinkmanship/Project Arts Centre); A Boy Called Nedd (Bitter Like a Lemon/Theatre Upstairs); Borstal Boy (Verdant Productions).

Screen credits include: Dead & Buried, The Woman in the Wall, Dublin Oldschool, The Island of Evenings, Kaleidoscope, Fair City.

MARIE MULLEN

Druid: Marie co-founded Druid in 1975 and has appeared in numerous productions including The House, Endgame, The Seagull, DruidGregory, DruidShakespeare: Richard III, Sive, Brigit, Bailegangaire, DruidShakespeare: Richard II, Henry IV Pts 1&2), Henry V, The Colleen Bawn, DruidMurphy – Plays by Tom Murphy, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, DruidSynge, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and The Playboy of the Western World.

Other theatre credits include: The Dead (ANU/Landmark Productions/MoLI); Audrey or Sorrow (Landmark Productions/Abbey Theatre); The Music Man (Broadway); The Saviour (Landmark Productions); Testament (Landmark Productions/Dublin Theatre Festival); The Man Who Came To Dinner, King Lear, The Man of Mode (RSC); The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant, The Power of Darkness, On Raftery’s Hill, Big Maggie (Abbey Theatre).

Screen credits include: Dancing at Lughnasa, Circle of Friends.

Awards include: Tony Awards, Best Actress; Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress; Obie Awards, Best Actress.

RORY NOLAN

Rory is a member of the Druid Ensemble.

Druid: Endgame, DruidO’Casey: Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy, Three Short Comedies by Sean O’Casey (2021), Sorry, Wrong Number, DruidGregory, The Cherry Orchard, Epiphany, DruidShakespeare: Richard III, Shelter, Waiting for Godot, DruidShakespeare: Richard II, Henry IV (Pts 1&2), Henry V, The Colleen Bawn, DruidMurphy – Plays by Tom Murphy.

Other theatre credits include: Piaf, The Importance of Being Earnest, Bedroom Farce, A Christmas Carol, Death of a Salesman (Gate Theatre); The Tempest, Northern Star, The Critic, Peer Gynt, The Importance of Being Earnest, Don Carlos, The Taming of the Shrew, Improbable Frequency, Is This About Sex? (Rough Magic); An Octoroon, She Stoops to Conquer, Aristocrats, The Government Inspector, Translations, Arrah na Pogue, Macbeth, The Rivals, Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant, The Comedy of Errors, Heavenly Bodies, Big Love (Abbey Theatre); The Alternative (Fishamble); Chekhov’s First Play (Dead Centre); Postcards from the Ledge, Breaking Dad, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger, Sleeping Beauty (Landmark Productions); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Livin’ Dred/Nomad); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Corn Exchange); The Evils of Tobacco (Mangiare Theatre).

Screen credits include: Showkids, Harry Wild, Whitetail, Once Upon A Royal Summer, The Ick, Silver and the Book of Dreams, Sisters, Conversations with Friends, Foundation, Deadly Cuts, X Marks the Spot, Acceptable Risk, The Delinquent Season, WILD, Charlie, Fair City, A Thousand Times Goodnight, The Baker Street Irregulars, Trouble in Paradise, Nothing Personal.

Awards include: Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, Best Supporting Actor (An Octoroon), Best Supporting Actor (Waiting for Godot).

MARTY REA

Marty is a member of the Druid Ensemble.

Druid: The House, DruidO’Casey: Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy, Three Short Comedies by Sean O’Casey (2021), The Seagull, DruidGregory, The Cherry Orchard, The Beacon, Epiphany, DruidShakespeare: Richard III, King of the Castle, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Waiting for Godot, DruidShakespeare: Richard II, Henry IV (Pts 1&2), Henry V, Brigit, Be Infants In Evil, The Colleen Bawn, DruidMurphy – Plays by Tom Murphy.

Other theatre credits include: The Dead (ANU/Landmark Productions/MoLI); Circle Mirror Transformation, The New Electric Ballroom, The Glass Menagerie, Beginning, The Great Gatsby, Juno and the Paycock, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Caretaker, An Ideal Husband, My Cousin Rachel, Little Women, Hay Fever, Salomé, Arcadia (Gate Theatre); The Weir, Translations, Portia Coughlan, 14 Voices From the Bloodied Field, Thirst (and other bits of Flann), Othello, She Stoops To Conquer, The Hanging Gardens, Major Barbara, John Gabriel Borkman, The Rivals, Only An Apple, The Big House, Saved, The Importance of Being Earnest (Abbey Theatre); Happy Days (Landmark Productions); Tiny Plays for Ireland (Fishamble); The Gifts You Gave to the Dark (Irish Rep NY); Hamlet (Second Age).

Screen credits include: Secret Peacemaker, Stray, Prisoners of the Moon, Citizen Lane, Barbarians Rising!, The Devil’s Pool, The Man Inside.

Awards include: Irish Times Theatre Awards, Best Actor (Hamlet), Best Actor (DruidShakespeare), Best Supporting Actor (King of the Castle and The Great Gatsby); Herald Angel Award, Edinburgh Festival (Waiting for Godot).