Cillian Murphy to star in Complicité's Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy will return to the stage in a new production based on Max Porter's novel, Grief is the Thing with Feathers.

Adapted and directed for Complicité by Enda Walsh – who has previously worked with Murphy on productions of Disco Pigs, Ballyturk and Misterman – the piece will receive its world premiere at the Black Box Theatre in Galway in March 2018. Co-produced with the Barbican, Cork Opera House, Edinburgh International Festival, Oxford Playhouse, St Ann’s Warehouse and Warwick Arts Centre, the play will tour in 2019.

Set in a London flat, Porter's debut novel was published in 2015 and nominated for a Guardian First Book Award. It tells of a widower and his young sons following the sudden loss of their mother.

Talking about the novel, Murphy said: "Grief is the Thing with Feathers truly broke my heart when I first read it and it will be a privilege to bring it to life on stage in Ireland."

On working with Complicité, Porter added: "I cannot think of a company I would rather see adapting Grief is the Thing with Feathers for stage than Complicité. I am humbled and thrilled that this most influential, restless and dynamic company will transform my book into live theatre."

Grief is the Thing with Feathers runs at the Black Box Theatre in Galway from 20 to 24 March with previews from 16 March, and at O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin from 28 March to 5 April 2018.