'Lady Of Burma' to tour Irish theatres

A play based on Burma’s inspirational opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will hit Irish theatres in 2008.

'The Lady Of Burma' has already played to packed houses in London and at the Edinburgh Festival.

The one-woman show, which is written and directed by Richard Shannon, stars Liana Mau Tan Gould in the lead role.

The play will be staged in Dublin, Sligo and Lisburn in April and May.

A two-night run at the Helix Theatre in Glasnevin is included in the tour.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, 62, has been under house arrest in Rangoon by Burma’s military junta for more than a decade.

The leader of the National League for Democracy party won a 1990 general election but was not allowed to take power.

Last September’s pro-democracy protests led by barefooted Buddhist monks catapulted the regime into the spotlight but the political situation remains unchanged.

A total of 100 Burmese refugees, forced to leave their country by the junta, have been resettled by the Department of Justice in Co Mayo.