From the stage to Love-Hate

ANDREW FLYNN of Galway-based Decadent Theatre Company is bringing Stuart Carolan’s debut play, Defender of the Faith, to Cork’s Everyman as part of a national tour.

He hopes the play’s much praised writer — the creator RTÉ’s Love/Hate — will attract a big theatre audience. Flynn says that people who traditionally don’t go to the theatre might be curious about the work because it’s written by someone who is a household name. “When you think that one million people watched the last episode of season four of Love/Hate, you hope to get even a small percentage of that which, in theatre terms, would be very good.”

Defender of the Faith was first performed at the Peacock Theatre 10 years ago and hasn’t been staged since. “For a debut play, it’s extremely well-accomplished. It had 24 performances in Dublin. I wondered why it hasn’t been done outside of Dublin.”