Someone Who'll Watch over Me by Frank McGuinness

Blackwater Projects proudly presents Frank McGuinness’Tony Award-nominated play, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me at theatres nationwide this Autumn.

In the remarkable Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness explores the difficult relationships among an Irishman, an American and an Englishman taken hostage in Lebanon during the early 1990s.

With nowhere to hide and only each other to turn to, the three men ultimately find the support they must cling to in order to survive. Sometimes hilarious, often moving, always compelling, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit.

Inspired by events surrounding Brian Keenan’s abduction in Beirut, this timeless classic has been described as ‘ heartrendingly compassionate’as well as ‘uproariously funny’, and is an absolute must-see for fans of the play and first-timers alike.

Cast

Charlie Bonner

Recent theatre work includes The Comedy of Errors with the Abbey Theatre.

Other theatre credits include The Shaughran, Living Quarters, Observatory, Monkey, Toupees and Snare Drums, Melon Farmer, Portia Coughlan, Good Evening Mr. Collins, and Macbeth for the Abbey and Peacock; A View from the Bridge and The London Assurance at The Gate; Skyroad with Theatre Royal; Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth all with Second Age; The Tempest with Corcadorca; Where Abouts with Fishamble and Way to Heaven with Gallowglass. Charlie has worked with various other companies such as Focus, Bedrock, Fada, Storytellers, The Lyric, Loose Canon, Pan Pan, Sempre Fi (Ireland), The Corn Exchange and Barnstorm Theatre Company.

Direction includes Car Show for The Corn Exchange, Within 24 Hours and Another 24 Hours with Sempre Fi (Ireland) and April Bright for Fada. Television and Film credits include This is Nightlive, The Race, The Tudors, This Little Piggy, Starfish, Bloom, Omagh, Proof, Joyriders and Fair City.

...flashing with fury and wit... an unfettered exploration of the human spirit
Sunday Times

...hauntingly rich and humorous... the hostage crisis throws up its very own three tenors concert
The Independent on Sunday

Malachy McKenna

A graduate of University College Galway, Malachy McKenna trained as an actor under Deirdre O’Connell at the Focus Stanislavski Studio, Dublin, where his play, Tillsonburg won the 2000 Stewart Parker Trust Literary Award. Malachy has completed the screenplay of Tillsonburg for Subotica Entertainment.

Stage experience includes: Obsequius I,Keano (Olympia & Tour), Vinny D’Impaler, Macbecks (Olympia), The Samurai in Rashomon (Storytellers), Mick Tracey in Stolen Child (Calypso), Bob Cratchit and Marley’s Ghost in A Christmas Carol (Gate Theatre), The Thane of Ross in Macbeth (Tivoli), Digger in Tillsonburg (Focus, Canadian Stage Company, Toronto); The Court Clerk in Caoineadh Airt ui Laoghaire and The Medicine Man in Cuairt an Mhean Oiche, both by Tom MacIntyre (Abbey Theatre); Troilus in Troilus and Cressida and Adonis in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, (Theatreworks); Austin in True West (Andrews Lane Studio); George in Tennessee Williams’ Garden District, Art in Precious Sons by George Furth and Dave in Death of A Dog and The Young Man in Talk to Me Like the Rain (Focus).

Film and TV include: The Clinic (RTÉ), The Tudors (CBC / Showtime), Savage (SP Films), The Running Mate (Treasure Films), King Arthur (Disney), Veronica Guerin (Bruckheimer Films), Michael Collins (Warner Bros), Ballyseedy (RTE), Tom Carson in RTE’s Fair City and Maurice in Gleann Ceo for TG4.

... a powerfully-imagined dramatic portrait of the strategies of human survival... this play is a modern classic.
Sunday Express

...Frank McGuinness, playwright and Irishman, is a marvel.
Daily Mail

...Overpoweringly moving... McGuinness' marvellous play about three men at the end of their tether is, for its harrowing subject matter, blissfully funny.
The Daily Telegraph

Duncan Hamilton

Favorite theatre work includes Macbeth for The London Shakespeare Company; Deathwatch by Jean Genet for The London Stage Company at the New York International Festival of the Arts; City Life at The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith; &Men, his critically acclaimed one-man show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival / Dublin Theatre Festival. In 2006 he became one of the first two Irish actors to appear on the Tessenkai Noh Stage in Tokyo since it’s establishment in the 15th century, when, with Finn MacGinty, he performed Rough for Theatre One as part of Samuel Beckett’s centenary celebrations under the auspices of the Embassy of Ireland.

Film & TV includes: Skeleton in the Closet (as Lafcadio Hearn), The Men Inside, Iron Chef, The Hollywood, Helena, Twine and Manten.

Awards for documentary and voice work include two International Telly Awards in the USA (Silver & Bronze); the Creative Excellence Award at the International Film & Video Festival, USA; and the Gold Medal at the World Media Festival, Hamburg.

Director

Rossa Ó Sioradáin

Rossa is a director, producer and actor who has worked in theatre, film and television in Ireland and abroad. In theatre he has directed American Buffalo by David Mamet (Crypt Arts Centre & Andrews Lane), True West by Sam Shepard (Andrews Lane), Suburbia by Eric Bogosian (Crypt Arts Centre) amongst others. In television he produced Seomra a Sé for Dearg Films, four nights of live television drama on TG4, bringing live drama to Irish television for the first time since 1963. He also produced and directed Uachtaráin (eight one hour documentaries on the Irish Presidency) for TG4. In film he has appeared in Pride/Umeki No Teki (Shoji Films, Japan), Spota (Dearg Films) and has an exciting yet forgettable walk-on part in the Committments.