Help make a Fairytale become reality

Fairytale of New York returns to The Stables Theatre at the end of July. The play is a musical about the life and times of Shane McGowan of the Pogues. Erica Smith finds out how you can support this tale of Irish punks in New York get back on the stage this summer.

Shane and the Pogues all began in the back streets and pubs of London’s Kings Cross area, where punks, anarchists, artists and musicians squatted together as a community. The Pogues were a bunch of misfits who blazed a trail to huge success without seemingly trying too hard. Then it all blew up in their faces. This is the story of Shane McGowan’s rise and fall… rise and… fall

The author, Tom O’Brien is a playwright and novelist who has written 20+ plays, many of them premiered  at London Fringe theatres. He said, “Fairytale is a love story really; two punks meet in Golders Green, Shane McGowan from Tipperary and Victoria Clarke, a sixteen year old, from Cork, their lives  being indelibly linked from that day onwards. Shane says it was love at first sight, but Victoria says she didn’t fall in love with Shane for another three years. Whatever, they are still together after all these years, and this is the  unvarnished story of that roller-coaster journey.”

The director is Riggs O’Hara – an American who has been a long-time resident of St Leonards. Riggs is a renowned actor/director who has worked in both London’s West End theatres and on Broadway.