Fishamble returns to 59E59 Theaters with the US premiere of Sebastian Barry’s ON BLUEBERRY HILL

59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to present the US premiere of ON BLUEBERRY HILL, written by SebastianBarry and directed by Jim Culleton. Produced by Fishable: The New Play Company as part of Origin’s 1^st Irish Festival, ON BLUEBERRY HILL begins performances on Tuesday, January 8 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 3. The performance schedule is Tuesday – Friday at 7:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 7:15 PM; Sunday at 2:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59^th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets are $25 - $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call the 59E59 Box Office at 646-892-7999 or visit www.59e59.org.

Following the critically-acclaimed world premiere production as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2017, Olivier Award-winning Fishamble and Laureate of Irish Fiction Sebastian Barry, reunite for the US premiere of ON BLUEBERRY HILL.

Starring Niall Buggy and David Ganly in “beautifully pitched performances” (Financial Times) as two men in an unlikely and inseparable companionship. Called “superb” (Irish Times), “phenomenal” (Sunday Independent), and “outstanding” (RTÉ Arena), this new play bursts with humanity as it explores murder, forgiveness, survival, and, ultimately, love in the prison of the human heart.

The design team includes Sabine Dargent (set and costume design); Mark Galione (lighting design); andDenis Clohessy (sound design). The stage manager is Steph Ryan.

BIOS

Sebastian Barry (playwright) was born in Dublin in 1955 and attended Catholic University School, and Trinity College, where he read Latin and English. In 1988 his play Boss Grady’s Boys won the first BBC/Stewart Parker Award. He was Writer-in-Association at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1990, and was elected to Aosdana. Subsequent plays were Prayers of Sherkin (Peacock Theatre 1990), White Woman Street (Bush Theatre 1992) and The Only True History of Lizzie Finn (Abbey Theatre 1995). In 1995 The Steward of Christendom, which starred Donal McCann, played at The Royal Court, the Gate Theatre in Dublin, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the US. It won the London Critics Circle Award, a Writer’s Guild Award, the Lloyd’s Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award, the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize and was nominated for an Olivier Award. In 1996 he was Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. In 1997 he received the Irish-American Fund Literary Award. Our Lady of Sligo in 1998 starred Sinead Cusack, and was seen in the Royal National Theatre, the Gate Theatre, and the Irish Rep in New York. It was joint winner of the Peggy Ramsay Award. In 1998 he published a novel The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty with Picador. His play Whistling Psyche was at the Almeida with Clare Bloom and Kathryn Hunter in 2004. His novel A Long Long Way (Faber and Faber) appeared in 2005, and won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, and was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and the Impac Prize. He was Heimbold Visiting Professor at Villanova University in 2006.  His play The Pride of Parnell Street (2007,Fishamble) was seen at the Tricycle Theatre, the Dublin Theatre Festival, the New Haven International Festival of the Arts, and 59E59 Theaters in New York.  In 2008 Dallas Sweetman was performed at the Canterbury Festival, starring Conleth Hill. The Secret Scripture, a novel, was published that year, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards, and won the Costa Book of the Year, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Independent Bookshop Week Book Award, and the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009. His novel On Canaan’s Side (2011) was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Walter Scott Prize. His most recent novel Days Without End was published by Faber in 2016 and won the Costa Book of the Year Award, The Walter Scott Prize, and the IBW Book Award and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. His play, On Blueberry Hill (Fishamble), was seen at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2017, starring Niall Buggy and David Ganly. In recent years he received honorary doctorates from the University of East Anglia, Galway University, and the Open University. His archive is held at The Harry Ransom Center in Texas. Sebastian Barry is the Laureate for Irish Fiction, 2018-2021.

Jim Culleton (director) is the artistic director of Fishamble: The New Play Company.  For Fishamble, he has directed productions which have toured throughout Ireland, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the US. His productions for Fishamble have won over a dozen Irish and international awards, including an Olivier Award for Silent by Pat Kinevane. Jim has also directed for companies including the Abbey Theatre, Woodpecker/the Gaiety, 7:84 (Scotland), Project Arts Centre, Amharclann de hIde, Tinderbox, The Passion Machine, The Ark, Second Age, RTE Radio 1, The Belgrade, TNL Canada, Dundee Rep Ensemble, TCD School of Drama, CoisCéim/Crash Ensemble/GIAF, RTE lyric fm, Fighting Words, Origin (New York), Vessel (Australia), and Symphony Space Broadway/Irish Arts Center (New York). Jim has taught for NYU, NUIM, GSA, Uversity, the Lir, Villanova, Notre Dame, TCD, and UCD.

A native of Dublin, David Ganly (actor, PJ) trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College. Theater includes Girl from the North Country, Shakespeare in Love (Noël Coward); On Blueberry Hill (Dublin Festival); The Velveteen Rabbit (Unicorn); Once, Grease, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz (Olympia, Dublin); The Lonesome West (Tron, Glasgow); The Plough and the Stars (Abbey, Dublin/Irish Tour/US Tour); Shadow of a Gunman (Abbey, Dublin/Lyric, Belfast); The Threepenny Opera, The Weir (Gate, Dublin); King Lear (Theatre Royal, Bath); Drum Belly, Uncle Vanya, The Cavalcaders, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Abbey, Dublin); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Macbeth (Sheffield); Of Mice and Men (Watermill, Newbury); The Wizard of Oz (Palladium); Beauty Queen of Leenane – OFFIE nomination for Best Actor (Young Vic); Chicago (Cambridge Theatre); The Wizard of Oz (WYP); The Field, John Bull’s Other Island, The Cavalcaders (Tricycle); Bedtime Story/The End of the Beginning (Young Vic/Union);Translations (NT);  Hamlet, The Weir, Waiting for Godot (Northampton); Americans, The Quare Fellow (Tricycle/UK Tour); The Full Monty (Prince of Wales); The Lonesome West (Druid Theatre/Royal Court/Sydney Festival/Lyceum, NY); Russian Tales, The Cavalcaders (Meridian Theatre Company); The Talented Mr Ripley (Watford); Amphibians (YMCA, Wexford); Dancing at Lughnasa (Salisbury Playhouse); Shoot the Crow, Summerhouse (Druid Theatre);The Merchant of Venice (Lyric, Belfast); The Risen People, The Snow Queen (Gaiety, Dublin); The Plough and the Stars (Second Age); Sexual Perversity in Chicago (TCD); Extremities (Andrew’s Lane); Carousel (Tivoli); Lunch with me Bloom (Dublin Castle); F! (Dublin Festival/Belfast Festival). Film includes Sunset Song; Body of Lies; Hippie Hippie Shake; Space Truckers. Television includes Casualty; Citizen Charlie; Dorothy Mills; Widow’s Peak;Upwardly Mobile; Doctors.

Niall Buggy (actor, Christy) is one of the leading Irish actors of his generation who has worked extensively on the stage and screen in Ireland, the UK, and the US. Some of his better-known rolesinclude the title role in Brian Friel’s Uncle Vanya, for which he won Best Actor at The Irish Times Theatre Awards, and for his role as Casimir in Aristocrats for which he won the Time Out Award, Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, and a Clarence Derwent Award. He also received the Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance in Dead Funny. His performance in Juno and the Paycock won him Best Actor in the TMA Awards. Most recent theater includes Furniture by Sonya Kelly (Druid Theatre),You Never Can Tell (The Abbey Theatre), St. Joan (Donmar Theatre, London), The Importance of Being Earnest (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Translations (Sheffield Crucible), The Hanging Gardens (Abbey Theatre) and A Whistle in the Dark with the Druid/Murphy season.  His later work also includes The Invisible (Bush Theatre), Plough and the Stars (Lyric, London and The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin), Translations (Broadway), Penelope (St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn). Film appearances include The Duel by Chekhov Mr. Turner/Mike Leigh,Mamma Mia, Casanova, The Butcher Boy, Alien 3 and The Playboys. Television credits include My Mother and Other Strangers/BBC, Jack Taylor 3/Taylor Made Films, Inspector Lewis, Dalziel and Pascoe,Father Ted, The Bill, and The Professionals. Niall has previously performed at 59E59 in Haunted by Edna O’Brien, 2010.