Druid’s The Cherry Orchard – Free Online

You may recall last March, the Druid production of the Cherry Orchard opened in late February 2020 in Gaiway. The production was meant to go to Dublin afterwards, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be with the pandemic getting in the way! There was a live screening of the production on the 5th of March, 2020 and this screening will be available online for 36 hours, starting from 8pm on the 19th of March.

Full details can be found here.

“Times are changing.

An old way of life is dying out.

A family faces extinction.

A country prepares for revolution.

And the cherry orchard? What will become of it?”

Druid announced today that audiences around the world can access a free stream of its 2020 production of The Cherry Orchard. Described as ‘pungent and urgent’ (The Guardian), the production forms part of Culture Ireland’s SEODA festival showcasing Irish arts, which takes place online during this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations. The Cherry Orchard will premiere online at Friday 19 March at 8pm GMT and will be available to stream for 36 hours.

This news comes after Druid’s recent production of Once Upon a Bridge by Sonya Kelly, which was streamed live in February 2020 from Druid’s home in Galway, the Mick Lally Theatre, to audiences in 35 countries. Following the live stream run, the ‘compelling’, ‘delicately uplifting’ (The Guardian) play was also made available on demand for a limited period.

Garry Hynes, Druid’s Artistic Director, said: ‘I’m delighted that our production of The Cherry Orchard will again be seen by audiences far and wide. Its first run was cut short by Covid-19 but now it will live again, streaming to homes across Ireland and the world. We are determined to make our work as accessible as possible, and I want to thank Culture Ireland for helping us to make this happen.’

Bringing together one of the world’s great classic plays with one of Ireland’s greatest writers, Druid’s production of The Cherry Orchard opened in Galway’s Black Box Theatre on Wednesday 26 February 2020. In a first for Irish theatre, the production was also broadcast live to cinemas across Ireland and the UK on Thursday 5 March 2020. A planned Dublin run of the live production and more cinema dates for the recorded broadcast performance were unfortunately postponed with the arrival of the coronavirus to Europe. Now, a year later, Druid is delighted to again share this production with audiences around the world for free.

The Sunday Independent described the production as ‘bleakly magnificent’ while the Irish Independent said that ‘Hynes directs with supreme control’. A play about land, legacy, and the struggle between tradition and change, this was the first major production of Tom Murphy’s work since his death in 2018.

Directed by Garry Hynes, with the acclaimed creative team behind DruidShakespeare, the production stars Derbhle Crotty and features a large company of actors including other leading members of the Druid Ensemble, Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard, Rory Nolan and Marty Rea, alongside Ian-Lloyd Anderson, Siobhán Cullen, Megan Cusack, Peter Daly, Rachel Feeney, Helen Norton and John Olohan.