Dublin theatre to stage Sam Shepard world premier

The world premiere of Sam Shepard’s new play will be staged in part of Dublin’s National Theatre, it was announced today.

The Peacock Theatre will host Kicking a Dead Horse next month with Oscar-nominated actor Stephen Rea taking the starring role.

The play was written and directed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning US writer and actor with the celebrated Irish actor in mind for the part of Hobart Struther.

The funny and tender tales tells of one man’s search for authenticity.

This first production of Kicking a Dead Horse continues the theatre’s on-going exploration of Shepard’s work and it’s commitment to Shepard as one of the most important playwrights of a generation.

Shepard is considered to be one of the world’s most important playwrights.

His first plays, Cowboys and Rock Garden, were produced in New York as part of the Broadway theatre movement and 11 of his plays have won Obie Awards.

Shepard was also awarded a Pulitzer Prize, as well as an Obie Award, for his play Buried Child (1979).

The talented actor has starred in a number of films, and has written screenplays and a number of short-story books, as well as the Rolling Thunder Log Book, a diary of Shepard’s time on Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour.

In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1992, he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy and in 1994 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Kicking a Dead Horse opens on Thursday, March 15, with previews on the previous three nights.

Sam Shepard will also read from his collection of short stories in the Abbey on Thursday March 8.