An evening of Paul Durcan’s poetry in Washington

January 21, 2011

In Washington, D. C., on Sunday, 13 February, the US-Ireland Alliance and the Corcoran Gallery will present Give Me Your Hand, an evening of poetry by Paul Durcan, performed by Dermot Crowley and Dearbhla Molloy.

A limited number of tickets remain. Contact vargo@us-irelandalliance.org for further information.

In Give Me Your Hand, Paul Durcan has taken some of the most famous paintings in the world, and interpreted them with his own unique, poetic voice. Join two of Ireland’s most eminent actors, Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley, for an imaginative stroll through the National Gallery in London, to discover afresh everyone from Van Gogh and Van Eyck, to Rubens and Gainsborough, through the unique prism of Paul Durcan’s imagination.

Paul Durcan is one of Ireland’s leading poets, the author of the Whitbread Prize-winning “Daddy Daddy.” Of Give Me Your Hand, Bryan Robertson says in his introduction to the collection “he glides in and out of the subject or content of each painting that inspires him. He projects himself into the personages, the situations, treats the paintings like kites in the gusty air of his imagination.” The poetry is compassionate, acerbic, witty and loving. Learn why Cardinal Richelieu finds it “a hard old station staying off the drink”, why Van Gogh’s mother “is so hot under the bra”, why the Arnolfinis “brains spill out onto the floor” or how a mother mourns the Lady in Yellow “Oh my daughter, my mandolin in the window, my bedroom door, my icon, my handkerchief under my pillow”.

For a taste of what the evening will be like:

http://www.givemeyourhand.info/

DERMOT CROWLEY

Dermot Crowley’s theatre work stretches from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at The Theatre Royal in the West End, to the Broadway productions of “Translations” and “The Weir” in New York. His extensive work for the National Theatre in London includes David Hare’s“Stuff Happens” (playing Donald Rumsfeld),”Scenes from the Big Picture”, His Girl Friday, Amadeus and the Double Dealer. He has played Pat to Dearbhla Molloy’s Meg in The Hostage for the Royal Shakespeare Company, worked many times at Hampstead Theatre in The Memory of Water, Ancient Lights, Hedda Gabler, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Time Out best supporting actor award), as well as seasons at The Bristol Old Vic and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. San Mendes directed both Dearbhla and himself in Gorki’sSummerfolk at Chichester, and he played James Joyce in Ed Hall’s production of Michael Hasting’s Calico at the Duke of York’s. His work in America includes singing Joxer in the musical Juno for the City Centre New York, starring as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for The McCarter Theatre Princeton, and Stephen in Patrick Marber’sDealer’s Choice at the Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut, and subsequently at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.

Dermot’s Television work includes playing DCU Schenk in the latest BBC thrillerLuther, and Mr Vholes in the award winning Bleak House. His extensive television work also includes Spooks, Dead Gorgeous, Murder Rooms, A Touch of Frost, Rebel Heart, Falling for a Dancer, Father Ted, Jonathan Creek, The Sculptress, Kavanagh QC, Poirot, Blue Money Films : Babel, Before you Go, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Staggered, The Son of the Pink Panther, Octopussy, The Return of the Jedi, and Giro City.

DEARBHLA MOLLOY

Dearbhla has worked consistently in theatre film and television for forty years, in West End productions from Arcadia at the Haymarket to In Celebration with Orlando Bloom. Alan Bleasdale’s On the Ledge and Martin MacDonagh’s Cripple of Inishmaan are among many appearances at the National Theatre, and other recent plays includeJuno and the Paycock at the Donmar, Doubt at the Tricycle and Ditch at the Old Vic Tunnels. She is an Associate Artist of the Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre of Ireland, and has also appeared frequently on Broadway, where her credits includeDancing at Lughnasa (Tony Award nomination) A Touch of the Poet, Juno and the Paycock, and last year Cripple of Inishmaan at the Atlantic Theatre NY. Awards include Drama Desk Award (2) Theatre World Special Award, London Critics Award, Irish Theatre Award (2) US Audie Award. Other nominations include Irish Film and Television Award, Royal Television Society Award and Grammy Award. She has made many television appearances, most recently in Waking the Dead, Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, New Tricks, 55degrees North, Stan, Touch of Frost, Sex in the City, GBH, The Fragile Heart and two seasons of Coronation Street. Film credits include The Damned United, No Reservations, Tara Road, The Blackwater Lightship, Ulysses, Run of the Country.