Paul Mescal Set for Big Stage Return with Classic Irish Drama
Paul Mescal is making a long-awaited return to the Irish stage—and fans are buzzing.
The Normal People star has been cast in the lead role of Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark, which is set to open at London’s National Theatre before making its way to Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for the Kildare native, but audiences will need to hold tight—Mescal won’t take to the stage in the production until 2027.
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The play, which centres around an Irish emigrant trying to break free from the grip of his violent family in England, will be directed by the Abbey’s artistic director Caitríona McLaughlin.
Describing the piece as “a pressure cooker of a play,” McLaughlin also announced she’ll be taking the reins for another major project—The Playboy of the Western World—as part of the National Theatre’s Christmas line-up. That production will star Bridgerton favourite Nicola Coughlan.
Speaking about the two upcoming shows, McLaughlin said: “Every generation deserves to see these two seminal works of the Irish canon. Both plays hold in common the opportunity to reinvent yourself, the desire to realise one’s own potential, and what happens when that opportunity is squandered or lost.”
Mescal’s stage credentials are nothing to sniff at—he bagged an Olivier Award for his powerful turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.
The countdown to 2027 is officially on!
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