THE FERRYMAN Royal Court Theatre

The moment the Royal Court announced they were staging Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, the whole season was sold out and a West End transfer guaranteed even before it had opened. The drama is set on a farm in rural Armagh in Northern Ireland in 1981, the year the hunger strikers died. A man, who has been missing these last ten years, has been found dead, shot by the IRA, his body preserved in a bog. What should his brother (Paddy Considine), an IRA activist who defected ten years ago, do? This powerful play, directed Sam Mendes and extremely well acted, is a major theatrical event and strongly recommended.