Mary Kenny for reading of new play in Navan

A reading of the brand new play by veteran Irish journalist, author and playwright Mary Kenny will take place at the Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, on Saturday 17th September. Mary Kenny will be present for a Q&A discussion following the reading at 8pm.

'Conversation Before A Hanging' centres on William Joyce (also known as ‘Lord Haw Haw’) who was the last man to be hanged by the British Crown for High Treason.

Lord Haw Haw had been a famous voice for Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and for this he was hanged in London in 1946. But Joyce, who was born in New York and grew up in Galway, was never a British subject. Seventy years on, lawyers still debate as to whether he was legitimately executed.

The reading will be conducted by a cast of actors assembled from Co Meath (Ciara Cassoni from Kells, Bryn Coldrick from Navan and Banagher, Stephen Cowan from Navan and Ashbourne, Katey Leech from Navan, and Michael Hayes from Navan and Dublin, who appears in the Vodafone Ireland television commercials) and from Banagher, Co Offaly (Liam Broderick, Brendan Dolan, Ger Hough and Jared Madden).

A reading will also take place at the Birr Theatre & Arts Centre on Sunday 18th September, at 7pm.

The reading is directed by Richard Ball of Navan and produced by Bryn Coldrick, who is an actor and historian originally from Navan, and moved to Banagher last year from Perth, Western Australia.

This new play, which has yet to be performed anywhere in the world, is based on research for Mary Kenny’s critically-acclaimed biography of Joyce, Germany Calling, which was published by New Island in 2003. This is a unique opportunity to hear and comment on this new work, before it is produced for the stage.

Conversation Before A Hanging, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Saturday 17 September, 8pm. €7. To book:www.solsticeartscentre.ie Box Office (046) 909 2300