Archive

Identifier: SKULL2001

Inclusive Dates: 2001

Extent:

Roundabout Theatre Company staged a New York premiere of Martin McDonagh's A Skull in Connemara at the Gramercy Theatre, with previews starting January 30, opening night February 22, and closing night May 20, 2001.The production was originally produced by ACT in Seattle, Washington in July 2000, under the artistic direction of Gordon Edelstein, managing director Jim Loder, and producing director Vito Zingarelli.

Writing for Stagebill, John Istel wrote of the play: "Welcome to McDonagh's world, an often barren landscape filled with a very different kind of 'cruel beauty' than the one Yeats rhapsodized about. McDonagh stripmines Connemara of its historically pastoral, romantic image, creating a land where menace and mystery are leavened by a maniacal mirth. Characters can't remember the local priest's name but can cite episodes of bad American television series like McMillan and Wife or Petrocelli. It's a countryside of unexpected discoveries." [John Istel, Wild at Heart. Stagebill, 2001]

Directed by Gordon Edelstein, with set design by David Gallo, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Michael Chybowski, sound design by Stephen LeGrand and original music by Martin Hayes.

Kevin Tighe played the part of Mick Dowd, Zoaunne LeRoy played the part of Maryjohnny Rafferty, Christopher Carley played the part of Mairtin Hanlon and Christopher Evan Welch played the part of Thomas Hanlon. Understudies: James Doerr, Aideen O'Kelly and Austin Jones. 


 

Playwright Martin McDonagh has written the critically acclaimed plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Lonesome West, The Cripple of Innishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Pillowman, A Behanding in Spokane, and Hangmen. A Skull in Connemara premiered in Galway, Ireland in 1997 where it then transferred to to the Royal Court Theate in London. The play received its U.S. premiere at the A.C.T. in Seattle, Washington under the direction of Gordon Edelstein. Roundabout Theatre Company's production was the play's New York Off Broadway premiere. 

Writing for Roundabout's Upstage guide, director Gordon Edelstein said of McDonagh, "[o]ne of the great paradoxes of Martin McDonagh is that when you read the work, you see it as the work of a young man - in its sense of humor and in how clearly it is influenced by his predecessors, such as David Mamet, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and J.M. Synge - and yet the work is 100 percent original. From Pinter and Beckett, he takes sensitivity to the musicality of language and the precise use of language as a tool of psychological violence. He seems to have taken license from Mamet to be brazenly testosterone driven - to be horrifyingly cruel while at the same time, hilarious. From Joe Orton, he takes an onstage violence with a particular quality that you can't quite get your arms around. It's as if he ate and digested fully the lessons of these masters, their aesthetic and cultural offerings, took from it what he cared to, and created from it something entirely original." [Gordon Edelstein. Roundabout Theatre Company's Upstage, February 2001]  

The production records consist of 1 Hollinger box containing 18 folders with 2 playbills (one autographed by the cast), direct mailing flyers advertising the work, and a black and white photographic print of the cast and crew.

Oversized drawings include:
5 pages of ground plan elevations and 2 pages of lighting plots.

Digital files include:
Costume sketch TIF scans (all black and white) (765MB)
Education guide (PDF)
General Management files (7.91MB)
B-roll (18.5GB)
Jpeg scans of playbill (46.9 MB)
Press clipping scan (PDF)
9 color production photographs with 1 copy of the cast and crew photo (3.70 MB)
8 black and white photographs of set model (1.21 MB)
Show art poster (PDF)

Oversize Marketing files include:
Poster mockup artwork

Photograph File includes:
3 copies of 5x8 cast/crew photo
13 color slides
2 color contact sheets from opening night (Job 01-02-122, rolls 1-2)



 

 

Access Restrictions: Open and available for research by appointment only.

Preferred Citation: A Skull in Connemara (2001), Roundabout Theatre Company Archives