Arts Week with Judy Murphy

I will defend her to the death,” says actress Anna Healy of Ticket Person, the memorable character she plays in Druid’s hit play, The Last Return. “She is doing exactly what she has been told to do.”                                                                                 The Last Return, about a group of desperate people queuing for return tickets to a sold-out play, was written by Sonya Kelly, based on a “chillingly hostile afternoon” she once spent doing just that.

Directed by Sara Joyce, this black comedy was a highlight of last year’s Arts Festival before going on to win a Fringe First at Edinburgh and also selling out at the Gate Theatre for the Dublin Theatre Festival. It’s now back in Galway’s Town Hall Theatre until Saturday, the final stop on its eight-venue Irish tour.

When it premiered last July, The Last Return struck a chord with the box-office staff of various theatre companies who are all familiar with the peccadillos of some theatre-goers.  The  play’s hilariously manic Umbrella Woman would give any of these demanding audience members a run for their money as she joins Newspaper Man in the foyer to queue for tickets. Military Man and Woman in Pink enter the fray later.

Return tickets for this fictional play are as scarce as hens’  teeth, so the characters try and cajole or bully Ticket Person into giving them priority. But their desperate stratagems cut no ice. She is unyielding.

“I love her,” says Anna, adding that she’d auditioned for the roles of Ticket Person and Umbrella Lady before the play went into production. “But I knew Umbrella Lady wasn’t for me.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.