HAVE A HEART
Have A Heart is a one-man play written and performed by Seamus Moran and directed by Liam
Halligan.
A man who’s recently had a heart transplant thinks that his new heart is talking to him. Is he going
insane, suffering side-effects from the medication or is it possible? Could this really be happening?
When his new heart persuades him to embark on a major quest, his life and his world are turned
upside down and inside out. He is soon operating well outside his comfort zone where his beliefs,
assumptions and view of himself are called into question, tested and challenged. Have A Heart is a
wonderfully dynamic and visual piece of theatre about love, obsession and head versus heart that will
demand a real tour de force performance. Structured like a detective story, it’s sure to keep
audiences guessing and fully engaged throughout. If you want to see what Kafka meeting Tarantino
might be like then this is your baby!
Seamus Moran has possibly been in every living room or kitchen in the country… not as himself but as
beleaguered Bistro owner Mike Gleeson in RTE’s Fair City. For 12 years he suffered the wrath of a
string of strong women from Helen through Ava, Yvonne, Geraldine and back to Yvonne, before finally
finding a way out, through the restaurant’s faulty fuse box. Since escaping the clutches of his
voracious and avaricious suitors, Seamus has played a range of interesting and challenging roles from
the philandering, irresponsible bookie in The Galway Races by James Phelan to gangster, bully and
would-be country singer The Don in The Boys by Gerard Humphreys at The New Theatre and a tragic,
grieving father in Corp + Anam 2 by Darrach Mac Con Iomaire. Have A Heart is Seamus’s second
one-man play but the first one he’s written. He’s really looking forward to returning to the New
Theatre.
Liam Halligan began his career as an actor working with Deirdre O’Connell and Mary Elizabeth
Burke-Kennedy at the Focus Theatre. He worked extensively in Ireland and UK with major companies
including the Abbey Theatre, Lyric Belfast, Cheek By Jowl, Theatr Clwyd, Lyric Hammersmith and The
Donmar London. He began working as a director with Focus Theatre and Galloglass. He founded
Quare Hawks Theatre Company in 2000 and was Artistic Director of Storytellers from 2004 to 2008.
Liam has twice been nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award as Best Director: Rashomon
(Storytellers) and Speaking in Tongues (Quare Hawks). More recently he directed a dazzling
production of Schiller’s Mary Stuart for Pageant Wagon which had a sell-out run in the Freemason’s
Hall Dublin and Naomi Elster’s first play Scabs at Theatre Upstairs. Liam has worked with Seamus
several times in the past and is really looking forward to bringing his one-man play to life on the stage
of The New Theatre. www.liamhalligan.ie
Marcus Costello is a native of Drogheda and has been production manager with Dublin Fringe Festival
since 2006. His lighting and set Design credits include, Team Theatre’s Light Signals 2010, Skin and
Blister 2009. Upstate Theatre Project’s Submarine Man 2008-2009. For Storytellers Theatre Company
and Liam Halligan, he has designed Midsummers Night’s Dream 2008, Turn of the Screw 2008,
Mushroom 2007, The Red Hot Runaways 2005, Dream of a Summer Day 2005, Rashomon 2004. At the
Pavilion Theatre, Can You Catch a Mermaid 2007, Onegin 2006 and Peter Pan 2008. He designed the
Gaiety School of Acting Graduation Shows from 2004-2009. He also designed Seamus Moran’s
one-man adaptation of St. Oscar by Terry Eagleton in 2003, produced by Tall Tales Theatre Company.
Marcus has also worked with Liam and Seamus on Speaking in Tongues 2004 and The Undertaking
1999. Marcus has been twice nominated for an Irish Times Theatre award for lighting design and his
work was part of Ireland’s Exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007.
Denis Clohessy has an honours degree in Composition & History of Music from NUI Maynooth and
Certification from Screen Training Ireland and UCLA in Film Scoring. His work at the Abbey Theatre
includes: The Hanging Gardens, Shush, The Government Inspector, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, An
Ideal Husband, Three Sisters, The Seafarer, Romeo and Juliet, The Crucible and Julius Caesar, Shibari,
Perve, Big Love, Woman and Scarecrow, Fool for Love and Burial at Thebes At the Gate Theatre he has
worked on A Streetcar named Desire, A Woman of no Importance, My Cousin Rachel, Da, Hay Fever,
Death of a Salesman, Festen and Hedda Gabler. He has also worked with many of Ireland’s leading
independent theatre companies such as Corn Exchange, Fishamble, Rough Magic, Lane Productions,
Second Age and Storytellers with Liam Halligan. In the dance world he has worked with The Junk
Ensemble, Fabulous Beast, Myriad Dance Company, Siren Productions and This Torsion Dance. He has
scored numerous short films including the multi-award winning Undressing my mother and Mouthing
Off series for Channel 4 and Venom Films, as well as their feature film His and Hers and His music for
The Limits of Liberty was performed by the RTE Concert Orchestra. In 2013 Denis was awarded the
Underground Film Award for Best Score for ‘The Note’. He won an Irish Times Theatre Award for
Best Sound Designer in 2011 for Sodome My Love and also an Absolut Fringe Award for Best Sound
Design for Man of Valour in the same year. He was a Participant on the 2011 ‘Advance’ programme
for Rough Magic Theatre Company and Associate Artist with the Abbey theatre in 2008. His first
Award was for Best achievement in Film Music at the 2005 European Short Film Biennale in Germany
for Useless Dog (Venom Films). Denis is really looking forward to collaborating with Liam, Marcus and
Seamus again.