Joe O’Byrne revisits I’m Frank Morgan
Joe O’Byrne has been receiving rave reviews for his plays set in the fictional community of Paradise Heights, including the highly acclaimed, The Bench.
His first play about these characters, I’m Frank Morgan comes to the Lowry on Sat 14th until Sunday 15th March.
Frank’s a hard man in a dirty old town. A loan shark and poker player, he’s taken on some of the toughest that ever drew breath. They’ve all ended up broken…or buried. But as he takes us on a tour of his recent past we see the mask is slipping and that this is a man haunted by his own demons. Tonight he’s shining a light into the recent events in his life, the further we go with him, the darker the territory becomes…And waiting in the dark is his toughest opponent of all…himself.
As well as the stage, these characters have also appeared on film in Lookin’ For Lucky – which has just acquired a distribution deal. The play was adapted and directed for the screen by Paul Murphy (Casualty, Holby City, Brookside) in the award winning short film of the same name in which Joe played Frank.
The play debuted in 2005 as part of the 24/7 Manchester Theatre Festival. “Although the play was written and is set in 1999, the current economic climate and the rise of loan sharking activities in run down communities has made it timely and appropriate to revisit the play” says O’Byrne. “The banks are there to service their shareholders; they aren’t interested in taking people on from communities like Paradise Heights. Up to thirty five percent of the population in deprived communities don’t have a bank account, that’s a terrifying statistic when you consider that a lot of those people will end up dealing with loan sharks like Frank Morgan.”
This will be Joe’s return to acting after two years in the wilderness, with Ian Curley on directing duties. “After watching Ian’s fantastic portrayal of Frank in The Bench, I knew he was the only other person that really knew the character. Ian is a very talented director and is such a buzz to work with, he has a unique and very exciting vision of the production.”
Ian Curley is a prolific actor/poet/musician and has appeared in several productions on the Manchester theatre scene including Nico Icon, The Bench, A Game of Two Halves, Under The Dirt, Death of a Lily and can also be seen in Lookin’ For Lucky. Joe’s next play, Rank, which is also set in Paradise Heights, will debut at The Lowry in June this year.