News, Blogs & Columns
Friday, May 14
H Street Playhouse
Washington, DC
The Directors of SCENA Theatre are thrilled to announce the latest
production in their 2009-10 season: the hit gangster drama PUBLIC ENEMY by renowned actor/director Kenneth Branagh. Starring in the title role is the acclaimed Irish stage and screen actor Barry McEvoy, who is a native of
Belfast, Ireland, where Branagh’s play is set.
PUBLIC ENEMY was inspired by the classic 1931 Warner Brothers film, which launched the stellar career of James Cagney. In The Public Enemy, Cagney played a gangster with a meteoric rise and fall. Branagh's 1987 play is re-set in Belfast during the political “troubles” of the 1980's. The action takes place in a literal battle zone between rival factions of Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries.
Young Tommy Black is so good at imitating Cagney that he wins a local talent contest. Next, he aims to clean up the neighborhood like Cagney’s gangster persona. Soon, the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur and Tommy’s tough play-acting spirals rapidly into murder. But, Republican Andersonstown is no place to pump a man full of lead — and no place to hide from the gangsters hunting Tommy down.
