Entertainment

A Great Arrangement offers 'fresh perspective' on Michael Collins

Actor Dominic McHale in the role of Michael Collins
Actor Dominic McHale in the role of Michael Collins Actor Dominic McHale in the role of Michael Collins

BILLED as a 'play for today' with the question of the border more relevant post-Brexit, A Great Arrangement – which opens at the MAC theatre in Belfast this evening – claims to cast Michael Collins in a new light.

The action takes place in a country in turmoil as Collins and his delegation negotiate what would become the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921.

Drawing on illuminating love letters, the play also zooms in on Collins's love life, as romance blossoms with Kitty Kiernan. Writer and director Patrick Talbot has also made use of The Big Fellow's speeches and of newspaper reports from the time.

"I was interested in presenting a fresh perspective on Collins," Talbot said. "Traditionally, he is presented as the the man of action, but in this play I focus on the budding statesman and a young man falling in love."

:: A Great Arrangement, the MAC, September 22-24.