Casting is now set for The Old Vic's world premiere of Conor McPherson’s The Brightening Air—a tale of fate, family, and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland—which will play the London venue April 10–June 14 with an official opening April 24.
Also directed by McPherson (The Weir, Girl From the North Country), the cast will feature Derbhle Crotty (Portia Coughlan), Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty (Juno and the Paycock), Brian Gleeson (Bad Sisters), Aisling Kearns (Juno and the Paycock), Seán McGinley (A Whistle in the Dark), Hannah Morrish (The Merchant of Venice 1936), Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids), and Rosie Sheehy (Machinal).
Understudies Ella Maria Carmen, Callum Cronin, Joseph McCarthy, and Amy Vicary-Smith round out the company. Casting is by Serena Hill.
The Brightening Air follows Dermot (O’Dowd), who returns home to County Sligo with hidden aims. His siblings (Gleeson and Sheehy) are desperate to hold on to the family home, but with an ex-clergyman uncle (McGinley) and sister-in-law (Morrish) looking for their own answers, plans soon go awry.
The upcoming production will also have set and costume design by Rae Smith, lighting design by Mark Henderson, sound design by Gregory Clarke, movement and intimacy direction by Lucy Hind, vocal coaching by Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth, dialect coaching by Danièle Lydon, fight direction by Kate Waters, costume supervision by Poppy Hall, and props supervision by Fahmida Bakht. The music associate is Benjamin McQuigg.
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