Behind the Scenes: The Lantern Man

A new play by award-winning playwright Jane Coyle, opens at Duncairn Centre for Arts & Culture, Antrim Road, Belfast on September 9, then tours to Antrim, Newry, Armagh, Derry, Downpatrick, Coleraine, Strabane and Lisburn.

From the writer of The Suitcase, The Lantern Man is a moving human drama, set against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in Irish history - the months leading up to the Easter Rising.

It began life as a staged reading at the Pick’n’Mix Festival in 2014 and has since had public readings at the Lyric Theatre, Féile an Phobail, South Bank Playhouse and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Secretariat.

The play now comes to full production with Dublin-based actor Shane Whisker in the title role, with a top level cast is completed by Cathy Brennan-Bradley, Hannah Coyle, James Doran, Julie Kinsella, Noel McGee and Libby Smyth.

The story sees soldier Johnny McGrath inherit hundreds of glass lantern slides showing images of the troops at war on his return to Dublin, and display them to the public in a bid to exhibit the real horrors of conflict.

But after bringing together two women from different social backgrounds who are united by a terrible event from the heat of battle, he learns that there is more to the pictures than meets the eye.

The story was inspired by the discovery of First World War lantern slides by famous Belfast photographer Alex. R. Hogg in the organ loft of Alexandra Presbyterian Church in north Belfast in 2013.

Alex had asked to put together a lantern slide exhibition ‘of our men at the front’. That collection is now known as The Castleton Lanterns.

The Lantern Man plays at the Duncairn Arts Centre on September 9 and 10, followed by Sean Hollywood Arts Centre, Newry (13), the Old Courthouse, Antrim (14) and the Market Place Theatre, Armagh (15).

It then moves to the Playhouse Theatre, Derry (17), Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick (21), Riverside Theatre, Coleraine (22), Alley Theatre, Strabane (23) before concluding at Island Arts Centre, Lisburn (24).