“It’s hard to explain. You thought the outside of me was me, but it wasn’t. My outside never matched my inside.” – Mark.
A story that peels back many different layers and aspects of masculinity, Luck Just Kissed You Hello is a play that is written by Amy Conroy, as she offers a deep recognition of how our childhood experiences shape and form us. The world premiere took place at the Galway International Arts Festival in 2015, seven short years ago. In 2022, it is now being performed in a changed world, bringing broader social understanding of one man’s trans experience.
‘I know this piece in all directions, both as a writer and an actor so when the prospect of returning to this play was presented to me it was both electrifying and daunting. Our understanding and experience of the subject matter and the various lenses that it is seen through have shifted and grown since its first performance. Did it still achieve what I intended within this new context and in our growing conversations? Important conversations about representation, and who gets to tell what stories, delicious conversations about gender and what that even means, relentless conversations about family and legacy.’ – Amy Conroy.
In Luck Just Kissed You Hello, Mark returns home for the death of his father, but Mark grew up as Laura. In this dramatic and witty exploration of masculinity, Mark defends his new life to those who know him best, his twin brother Gary and old friend Sullivan. And, most confronting of all, he must face what it means to be himself.
With a stellar cast of Riley Carter (Mark), Ross O’Donnellan (Gary) and Jamie O’Neill (Sullivan) this production has been treated with absolute care and attention to detail by director, Wayne Jordan.
‘Rehearsing this play has been like sitting on one side of a chess board with the wraith of Irish patriarchy sitting opposite and trying to carve out some pattern of hope. The text is layered and echoes at itself in search of new endings to age old and outdated stories. Luck Just Kissed You Hello is a play full of grief – grief for our fathers, for what they did to us, for who we were and who we might have been. It’s a play that directs us toward legacy – how we might excavate possibility from the debris of memory. How we might walk out of the pool of our own history with a strong spine and a sense of self.’ – Wayne Jordan
Luck Just Kissed You Hello will be on the Peacock stage at the Abbey Theatre from April 29th – May 14th. Tickets available at Abbeytheatre.ie
