James Bond director Sam Mendes to put on play set in Derry during 1981 Hunger Strikes
THE director of James Bond blockbusters movies is to direct a new play set in Derry.
Sam Mendes will direct The Ferryman London’s Royal Court threat where he made his debut.
Written by by Jez Butterworth, The Ferryman is a play set in rural Derry in 1981 during the height of the Troubles.
Mendes announced this year that he would not direct a third Bond movie after Skyfall and Spectre starring Daniel Craig.
Mendes has rekindled his working with Butterworth after he called in the 47-year-old playwright to help him with the script for Spectre.
The Ferryman will run at the Royal Court in April and May next year.
Few details have been revealed but it is set in rural Derry, 1981, and follows the Carney farming family as they prepare for the harvest.
“A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor.”
It is set in the same year as the republican hunger strikes which led to the deaths of 10 prisoners including the IRA leader in the Maze prison, Bobby Sands.
Said Jez Butterworth: “It is a play about a family where the past comes back into the present in a way that shows it was never really buried.
“It is set during the end of the hunger strike, but it is away from that urban setting of the hunger strike and set on a farm where the main preoccupation is bringing the harvest in.
“It is looking at the notion of whether you care for the land with a capital L or a small l, and whether you take up the sword or the plough.”
