The Shawshank Redemption

Synopsis

Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and sent to the notorious Shawshank Prison to serve two life sentences. Stripped of his life, family and freedom, Andy is forced to endure a spirit-crushing routine. But with his quiet strength and inner courage there is one thing that Andy never loses - and that is hope.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 14 September 2009

The implicit irony of a prison play is that it celebrates the liberation of the human spirit, and this clever stage adaptation of Stephen King’s brilliant novella – the rights to the movie were unavailable – is as powerful as any such drama since Kenneth Brown’s The Brig in the mid-1960s.

The Brig was set in a Marines detention centre and charted the gradual destruction of the individual in an Artaudian cacophony of sound and physical movement (it was the breakthrough show for the Living Theatre).

The Shawshank Redemption, more sentimental and optimistic, shows the survival instinct working the system in a desensitised environment that is still not immune to the possibility of change. This is why the play works so well; every performance since the opening at the Gaiety in Dublin has received a spontaneous standing ovation.

The project is a continuation of the “comedians do theatre” initiative that has so far embraced Twelve Angry Men and...

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Latest User Review

houndtang - 22 November 2009:

I came to see the The Shawshank Redemption late, long after it first came out as a film, on a flight to Canada. I was immediately drawn into the story and was later bemused to find out that it never took off as a film, only after it went out in DVD. It seems originally the title confused many American's. The stage adaptation is a miracle, capturing the spirit and essence of the story to perfection and, often hard to do on stage, being very moving and in the final moments hugely uplifting. I can see why people cheer and stand at the end, unfortunately not last Saturday night. I cannot imagine it not crossing the pond where the audiences will be up on their feet cheering and during the performance too not just at the end! A classic example of why we keep on going back to the theatre. Terrific!...

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