Download Great Success for The Man in the Woman`s Shoes

PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release - 30 April 2017
Great Success for The Man in the Woman’s Shoes
Written and performed by Mikel Murfi
Hawk’s Well Theatre
Fri 15 May, 8pm
€15/12 Friends
Winner 2014 Zebby Award (Irish Writers Guild) for Best Theatre Script 2013
Winner of Stewart Parker BBC Radio Drama Award 2013
Nominated for Best New Play Irish Times Theatre Awards 2014
The Man in the Woman's Shoes was written by and stars Mikel Murfi. It was originally commissioned
by the Hawk's Well Theatre in Sligo with Sligo County Council Arts Service for the Bealtaine Festival
in 2012 and last year toured to venues around Ireland. It won the Stewart Parker BBC Radio Drama
Award in 2013, was nominated for Best New Play in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2014 and won a
Zebby award (Irish Writers Guild) for best theatre script in 2013.
The play is going to the Irish Arts Center in New York from February 24 – March 14 and then returns
to the Peacock stage for a 3 week run in April. It returns to the place it all started – the Hawk’s Well
Theatre for what promises to be another sold out performance on Friday 15th of May.
Mikel also collaborated with the Hawk’s Well theatre on the recent production of ‘The Far Off Hills’
for Nomad Theatre Productions which toured to venues nationwide in 2014.
It’s October 1978. Pope John Paul the First is not long dead, autumn is closing in and Pat Farnon has
‘some business’ to do in town. The Man In The Woman’s Shoes follows Pat as he walks the five miles
from his white cottage to town and back again. He meets unforgettable characters along the way,
including water diviner Huby Patterson, GAA enthusiast extraordinaire Kitsy Rainey, big voiced
Casimir Marshall, an array of farmers all named Gilmartin and Kemp, a man whose idea of a good
time is to direct traffic wherever he may find it. Pat may be an aging man but he has a boundless
enthusiasm for life. Hilariously funny, tender and at times downright daft, The Man in The woman’s
Shoes, will leave you uplifted and in love with life again.
"I think none of us is old, me heart has never been old ..."
“A physical comedian, blessed with plastic features, and with the vocal range of a ventriloquist,
Murfi makes sheep, pigs, dogs, and even bees, come to life.”
– Irish Theatre Magazine
"An enchanting show… Hilarious…One of the most delightful theatrical experiences I've had in a
long time"
– Gay Byrne, RTÉ Lyric FM.
About Mikel Murfi:
Mikel is from Sligo. He trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris. As an actor his work at the Abbey and
Peacock Theatres includes The Playboy of The Western World, The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors
and The Morning After Optimism. He was a founding member of ‘Barabbas … The Company’. Mikel
most recently appeared in The Man in The Woman’s Shoes, a one man show he devised with
members of active age groups in County Sligo. He played in The Clerk and The Clown by Mark
Doherty at the Galway Arts Festival and in Ionescu’s The Chairs, with the Blue Raincoat Theatre
Company. He appeared in Enda Walsh’s The New Electric Ballroom for Druid Theatre Company
which won a Fringe First, a Herald Angel Award and a Best Supporting Actor award for Mikel in The
Irish Times Theatre awards. He has directed Diamonds in the Soil and The Lost Days of Ollie Deasy
for Macnas. He directed Trad for Galway Arts Festival which went on to win a Fringe First in
Edinburgh before touring internationally. Mikel directed the Enda Walsh plays Penelope and The
Walworth Farce for Druid both of which won Fringe Firsts in Edinburgh . Most recently he directed
The Country Girls for Red Kettle and The Far Off Hills for Nomad Theatre Network. Murfi has just
starred opposite Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea in Ballyturk written and directed by Enda Walsh
which played to sold-out houses in Galway, Dublin and at the National Theatre in London. He is a
founding member of Barabbas Theatre Company and was last in New York when he directed
Penelope by Enda Walsh at St. Ann’s Warehouse. His films include The Commitments,Guiltrip, The
Butcher Boy, Ella Enchanted, Intermission and most recently Jimmy’s Hall directed by Ken Loach.
For further information contact Maeve McGowan, Marketing Manager, Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo,
[email protected] 071 916 1518