Star of BBC drama series Mistresses, Orla Brady will live up to the television show’s title when she plays an extra-marital lover in Edna O’Brien’s Triptych, which opens at the Southwark Playhouse on 11 April (previews from 9 April). Brady is joined in the Sean Mathias-directed production by actresses Terry Norton and Jessica Ellerby.
Triptych follows three women – a wife, a mistress and a daughter – and their relationship with one man – a husband, a lover and a father.
Irish actress Brady, who plays the mistress, has previously appeared in productions including Rebecca (Lyric Theatre Belfast), Three Sisters (Gate Dublin) and A Lovesong For Ulster (Tricycle). In addition to her starring role in Mistresses, her television credits include Wuthering Heights, Hustle and Nip/Tuck.
The Southwark Playhouse production is a reunion for director Mathias and award-winning South African actress Norton, who plays the wife. The pair previously worked together on Mathias’s original production of Triptych, which was staged at the Market Theatre, South Africa in 2007. Norton’s work in South Africa spans stage and screen, and includes two South African Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards for Best Actress.
Ellerby, who plays the daughter, graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2007.
Playwright O’Brien has been a leading voice among Irish literature since her first novel, The Country Girls, caused a scandal when it was first published in 1960. Her plays include Iphigenia, Virginia, Our Father and Tir Na Nóg.
Mathias’s recent London work includes the revival of Ring Round The Moon currently playing at the Playhouse, Aladdin (Old Vic), Design For Living (Donmar Warehouse) and Bent (National Theatre).
MA