Killian Glynn’s ‘Starseed’ at the Galway Town Hall Theatre
By Ashyle Cota
Starseed is a new dark comedy by Mayo playwright Killian Glynn which deals with homelessness, mental health, self-worth and friendship. The play follows the protagonist Iris and her companion Gabriel as they unravel her dreams and visitations from Shauna, their friend on the streets of Galway city.
Eva’s Echo theatre company’s co-founder, Rena Bryson, is directing the talented cast of Sharon Conneely, Eavan Murphy, Mícheál Ó Fearraigh and Martin Gilligan. They will be performing at 8:30pm each night from Wednesday 6 November to Saturday 9 November 2019 in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway.
Bryson commented that there will be a lot of laughs;
“It’s a play that really mixes comedy and drama side by side. At times the comedy can be quite dark, but always playful and empathetic.”
She said that the design is going to be absolutely fantastic. Both their costume & set designer Hazel Stanley, and lighting manager Cornelius Dwyer, have worked together to make a wonderful dreamscape, accompanied by hang drum music.
The playwright Killian Glynn studied Performing Arts in IT Sligo with Bryson some years ago and has always been a fantastic actor, but has also been developing his skills as a writer throughout the years;
“He sent us a draft of what would later become Starseed in November of last year and we put it in front of an audience for a creative writing night and it went down so well,” said Bryson. “We were like, oh my god, we have to get this onto the stage as a full-length production!
So we worked in a very different way with Killian, which I feel can only be done with someone as open and creative as Killian, where he sent me a new draft each month and I helped him with the editing and development process of the piece which was really a wonderful position to be in as a director; to be able to contribute creatively to those early stages and throughout the development.”
Homelessness is probably the most outstanding theme of the play, as three of the characters are homeless. At present, there are over 300 adults who are affected by homelessness in Galway, which Bryson believes is an important issue to be addressed;
“I feel this is a really pressing issue, and with this production we come to humanise the issue of the homelessness crisis here in Galway.
“With Eva’s Echo, we always attract a mixed audience but I feel [that] something that does make us unique as a theatre company is that we do attract a younger demographic and we also attract audience that may not be usual theatregoers. So, because all of our plays are around modern Ireland, they’re contemporary, they’re very accessible. We are hoping to bring new focus to the theatre as audience and on stage.”
Tickets for ‘Starseed’ are available from the Town Hall and can be purchased at the theatre, over the phone (091) 569 777 or on their website https://tht.ie/
