Robert Falls directs the production and cast, featuring in alphabetical order: Brían F. O'Byrne (Ian), Oliver Platt (John), Martha Plimpton (Neasa) and Peter Scanavino (Laurence).
O'Byrne plays Ian, a former priest who has taken off the collar to become a therapist in downtown Dublin. One of his first patients, played by Oliver Platt, announces on his first visit that he believes his is being haunted by the ghost of his former wife, who was recently killed in a car accident. As their sessions continue, and segments of Ian's life are revealed, the line between the sick and the well—as well as the real and the imagined—becomes blurred.
Fans of McPherson's work are familiar with the dramatist's interest in spooky stories. A large part of The Weir consisted of the telling of various ghost stories, one more unsettling than the next. And the solo play St. Nicholas concered a theatre critic who becomes entangled in a netherworld of vampires.
The creative team for Shining City includes Santo Loquasto (scenic design), Christopher Akerlind (lighting design), Kaye Voyce (costume design) and Obadiah Eaves (sound design).
Playwright McPherson was born in Dublin in 1971. He attended University College Dublin, where he began to write and direct. His plays include Rum & Vodka, The Good Thief, This Lime Tree Bower, St Nicholas, The Weir, Dublin Carol and Port Authority. Awards for his theatre work include the Laurence Olivier Award, Evening Standard Award, Critics Circle Award, George Devine Award, Meyer-Whitworth Award and the Stewart Parker Award. He is also a screenwriter. Falls directed Broadway's recent Long Day's Journey Into Night (three 2003 Tony Awards, including Best Revival) as well as the 1999 Tony Award-winning Death of a Salesman, for which he was honored as Best Director. His other Broadway credits include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Young Man From Atlanta, The Speed of Darkness, The Rose Tattoo and The Night of the Iguana.
Brían F. O'Byrne won a Tony Award for Frozen and was nominated for Doubt; Oliver Platt recently earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his work in the critically acclaimed Showtime series "Huff," and appeared in the recent feature film "Casanova"; Martha Plimpton made her Broadway debut in 2004 with 16 Wounded at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and appeared in Off-Broadway's The False Servant (Classic Stage Co.), Flesh & Blood (NYTW), Boston Marriage and Pericles (The Public Theater) and Hobson's Choice; Peter Scanavino makes his Broadway and MTC debut in Shining City, and recently appeared in director Jeff Cohen's The Moonlight Room.
The Biltmore Theatre is at 261 West 47th Street. Tickets are available at Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 and at telecharge.com.
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Manhattan Theatre Club produces at three spaces: Its Off-Broadway homes at Stage I and Stage II at New York City Center, and its Broadway home at the Biltmore.
For more information, visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com.
