Impressive cast for premiere of Eugene O’Neill play setting a marker for theatre in the south east

Ben Barnes has assembled an impressive cast for the Irish premiere of a play by Eugene O’Neill, writes Padraic Killeen

ONETIME director of the Abbey Theatre, Ben Barnes has accomplished much during this past decade as artistic director of the Theatre Royal in Waterford. Most significantly, he has presided over the refurbishment of the city’s 430-seater venue.

Barnes has also managed to do something that not every regional theatre manages — to originate a number of productions at the Theatre Royal itself. The latest of these is a production of Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, which — surprisingly, given O’Neill’s stature — is the Irish premiere of the play.