THE Lyric Theatre's choice of new artist in residence for 2016-7, announced at the launch of the new season in the theatre on Tuesday, is definitely special.
The recipient is Belfast musician, DJ and composer Peter Wilson, better known as Duke Special.
As the Lyric's executive producer Jimmy Fay put it, the selection process was about being adventurous.
He said: "We've been considering this since September.
"Peter Wilson has his own voice and vision which were shown in his music for Mother Courage in Deborah Warner's production at the National Theatre in 2009. Now Peter has a mission and he's been inspired by Kurt Weill's last work on Huckleberry Finn."
Wilson has been interested in the material for some time and produced a Duke Special Huckleberry Finn EP in 2010.
His plans for a musical which will move on from Weill's score, left unfinished when the composer died in 1950, should result in an anticipated co-production with the National Theatre in 2017.
Earlier this year, the composer produced a musical version of Gulliver's Travels at the Lyric Theatre with a script by Andrew Doyle, and he revealed that he intends to work this time with the same librettist.
Wilson heard he'd got the residency, funded by a private donor and worth £15,000, some weeks ago.
He said at Tuesday's launch that he felt "lucky, privileged" and that he intended to work hard in the post, before heading to his comfort zone, the piano.
He then played his own version of Michael Longley's poem, Lena, and Weill's characteristically louche sounding Apple Jack from the Huckleberry fragment.
Wilson said he had chatted to previous writer in residence, playwright Owen McCafferty, before getting the post. "Owen said he'd enjoyed it and I thought I'd love to move away from touring and do something like that. Then they called me in."
The Lyric's launch evening also contained numbers performed by cast members from Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf and Putting It Together, two of the Lyric's Christmas shows. The Tom Waits-sounding Wolf's song about winter flowers was superb.
Jimmy Fay also flagged up a successful year in the theatre, with audience figures up 40 per cent.
