Our new production of Northern Star directed by Lynne Parker will be performed in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow with an impressive cast including Richard Clements, Darragh Kelly, Paul Mallon, Charlotte McCurry, Eleanor Methven, Rory Nolan, Robbie O’Connor and Ali White. 

Project Arts Centre, Dublin 21 April – 7 May, 2016

Tron Theatre, Glasgow 11-14 May, 2016 (as part of Mayfesto 2016)

Lyric Theatre, Belfast 17-29 May, 2016

Set and Lighting Designer is former SEED Zia Holly,  Costume Design by Joan O’Clery and Sound Design by Ivan Birthistle. 

Northern Star is based on the intriguing story of Belfast-born United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken, as he dissects the reasons for the failure of the 1798 rebellion, and its attempt to forge a new nation, in a journey through the missed opportunities of Irish history.

In this elegant, witty and moving play, a lunatic sense of invention is harnessed to a virtuoso Rough Magic ensemble - for a freewheeling journey, from the sublime to the ridiculous, through Irish political and theatrical history.


‘A directly political play that manages to be vastly entertaining as well as intellectually supple...’

Fintan O’Toole

Stewart Parker’s play Northern Star is a masterpiece of modern Irish drama. We meet charismatic rebel Henry Joy McCracken in Belfast on the eve of his arrest and subsequent execution in August 1798. First produced in 1984, it is a play that both contains - and critiques - the Irish theatrical canon. Stylistically, it recalls the seven ages of McCracken’s life, each presented in the speech, setting, and style of a great Irish playwright from Synge and Wilde, to Behan and Beckett.