Brendan at the Chelsea

In 2002 I was approached to see if I might be interested in writing a stage adaptation of my uncle Brendan’s book, Brendan Behan’s New York. The book proved unadaptable, by me at least. But I happened to find myself in New York that autumn and a trip to the Chelsea Hotel and a couple of hours with its then manager, the legendary Stanley Bard marked the start of an altogether different play.

In 2005 The National Theatre Studio offered me a three-day workshop of my unfinished play, Brendan at the Chelsea. Simon Cox directed the workshop and we set about casting it. He suggested Adrian Dunbar and I said ‘Oh, he’ll be far too busy’. Simon said that was the great thing about the National, you could ask for anyone you liked. In a moment of great serendipity, Adrian was at the time half way up a mountain in Leitrim, listening to a recording of Brendan’s songs and stories; he declared himself to be a great admirer of Brendan and said he’d be delighted to take part. 

So for two days we all worked on the play and I sat up all night writing and re-writing and on the afternoon of the third day the actors gave a rehearsed reading before a small but appreciative audience. The following day Adrian appeared on my doorstep holding a box containing a large panettone and suggested we form a company with Adrian directing and playing Brendan. I readily agreed and after many rewrites and many, many pots of tea we joined forces with Rosalind Scanlon, artistic director and board member at The Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith, and formed our company, Arts Eire. 

In 2007, with the help of some very generous angels we put on the first ever production at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith with a wonderful cast featuring Bríd Brennan as Brendan’s wife, Beatrice.

Then in 2011, Adrian called me with the news that our play was to be the opening production in the studio space at the newly re-built Lyric Theatre, Belfast. I had a very strong sentimental attachment to the old Lyric as I’d worked there as an actress in the early eighties and, in the bar there, met the man I have now been married to for the past forty years.

The Lyric production boasted a beautiful set by Stuart Marshall — 

A fabulous cast (Left to right, Adrian Dunbar, Pauline Hutton, Richard Orr, Renée Castle, Chris Robinson, me)

and it sold out for the entire of its four-week run. 

https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/brendanchelsea-rev

In 2013, The Lyric production was revived for a tour, beginning New York’s Acorn Theatre.

I flew out to be on hand for rehearsals and a beyond wonderful opening night. 

After nine weeks in New York the play sold out at The Project in Dublin,

And delighted packed houses on its triumphant return to the Lyric.

The following year Brendan at the Chelsea was published in the 2014 edition of Irish University Review,

and I was invited to speak at Brendan Behan — An International Conference in Rome. 

A wonderful experience for me and, I hope, everyone else involved in bringing Brendan at the  the stage. I’ll leave it to Adrian himself to sum up.

https://www.broadway.com/videos/brendan-chelsea

All enquires concerning performing rights, amateur or professional should be made to: 

• Berlin Associates
• 7 Tyers Gate
• London SE1 3HR
• tel 44(0)7386 1112
• agents@berlinassociates.com

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/artsextra/2011/06/adrian-dunbar-as-brendan-behan.shtml