If you ask Jez Butterworth about The Irish Troubles, you can watch the playwright time travel in his mind back to his childhood. 鈥淚 knew when I was 11 years old that the hunger strikers were dying one by one in 1981,鈥� he told 半岛体育 in the fall. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such a powerful campaign, people starving themselves to death, and when you're 10 years old it hit really hard and it was on the news every single time it happened, which was, of course, the point and it massively, massively affected me.
鈥淚 never intended to write about it and then suddenly I did,鈥� he added. And now that play, The Ferryman, is nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Play.
鈥淚t tells me what I already knew about the play whenever I read it, which is that it's a universal story,鈥� star Laura Donnelly says in the video above of the success the play has enjoyed since its transfer to Broadway. 鈥淭hat it doesn鈥檛 really matter if you don鈥檛 know anything about he background of the politics of this play, it鈥檚 a story about human beings.鈥�
READ: Why Laura Donnelly Is 鈥業nextricably Linked鈥� to Her Role in Broadway鈥檚 The Ferryman
Whether you credit the writing, as Donnelly does, or the performances, as Butterworth does, The Ferryman has undeniably captivated audiences as an epic ensemble piece.
鈥淭heatre is a big bear,鈥� says Butterworth. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a hundred to one shot, so when it comes off it really comes off.鈥�
