Following the resounding success of the best-selling Walking with Ghosts, published at the end of 2020, Gabriel Byrne returns to the Gaiety this month after four decades, with a stage adaptation of his evocative memoir. Walking with Ghosts is Byrne’s own adaptation of his memoir which he stars in under the direction of Lonny Price, whose Broadway directing credits include Sunset Boulevard, starring Glenn Close, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Audra McDonald as well as the NY Philharmonic Sweeney Todd starring Emma Thompson. The University Times spoke to Lonny Price about his experience directing Gabriel Byrne’s historic return to the Irish stage.
Walking with Ghosts is a play based on Byrne’s memoir of the same name which, in Price’s words “chronicles Gabriel’s growing up in Ireland and his dealing with personal and some professional issues” with an intrinsic focus on the actor’s “personal journey”. “It’s funny, poignant and moving”, continues Price, crediting the memoir’s power to Byrne’s being “a glorious prose writer”, a skill which he has seamlessly translated into playwriting for what is “a solo play where he will act out all the characters of his life and his encounters”, Price further clarifies.
Working from the draft Byrne had created of adapting his memoir into a play, Price explains of the development process that “we began working in earnest at the beginning of November and we would look at the play and try and see what of the book was dramatic and what was better left as a book”. In order to successfully dramatize the memoir, Price stresses that Byrne “was not precious at all about the material” which, in turn, greatly aided their collaborative work on the production “because he knew that the theatre is a very different medium” from his previous experience. He further deems the development process to be “tricky” and “ongoing”, explaining that during every rehearsal the pair “evaluate the dramatic possibilities of the story and our retelling it in the best way possible for the stage”.
With the deeply personal format of the memoir transposed to the stage brings the difficulty of directing the simultaneous playwright, author and actor in Walking with Ghosts. To overcome this potential barrier, Price elucidates that “we look at the ‘character’ of Gabriel as a character” with the latter even referring to it as “him” rather than “me”. This creates a separation which enables Price’s directing process to “compartmentalise between the person and the character that is the focus of the play” which allows him “some freedom to be able to guide the character without feeling like [he is] guiding the man it is about”. Despite the fact that some of Byrne’s writing in Walking with Ghosts is “inherently dramatic”, according to Price, the challenge in transposing the evocative memoir to the stage lay in putting it into “a cohesive two-act format which would allow as much of the book to come through while dramatising it”. He continues, adding that “the hardest part was leaving some things out that I loved” wherein the ultimate challenge was “the tearing away of terrific material”.
The pandemic has also affected the production behind the scenes. Indeed, Price asserts that “the hardest part for me is that we keep the rehearsal room very cold with the windows open, so we have a lot of space heaters and I’m sitting with lots of layers and a constant cup of tea”. Despite this, Price acknowledges that “we’ve been really lucky in that none of the team is ill and we’ve been able to escape it”. While coronavirus has not really affected the production, the hardest part of it prevails on a personal level for Price, with this being his first time in Dublin. He notes that “I can’t go to restaurants, not that I would even wish to expose myself even with a mask on so I’m living a rather hermit kind of life with my associate director”.
According to Price, audiences can expect to “see Gabriel Byrne in a new light, in a much more expansive light”. He explains that Byrne is “playing all kinds of characters”, from comic to serious to silly, which enables the audience to “see the broad range of his skills as an actor”. Furthermore, he expects the audience to “look at their lives in relation to Byrne’s and find many similarities of experience”. Ultimately, Price explains that the production is “a very universal story, about ghosts, masks and mirrors”, as he hopes “that the audiences enjoy watching Gabriel’s journey and think of their own as they are watching it and after they leave the theatre”. He concludes, asserting that “I think it’s going to be a wonderful night”.
Landmark Production and Lovano’s world premiere of Walking with Ghosts runs until February 6th at the Gaiety Theatre. Tickets can be purchased on the Gaiety’s website, starting from €26.
