Cyprus Avenue to be re-staged at the Pavilion Theatre starring David Hayman

The play Cyprus Avenue will be staged at the Pavilion Theatre, following a successful run at the Tron Theatre in the city last year, who also co-produce the 2024 dates. 

David Hayman (Raging Grace, Bull, The Ballad of Billy McCrae, Fisherman’s Friends) leads an exceptional cast in this bruising and brilliant production as Eric, a Belfast Loyalist, still very much stuck in the past. Eric is completely convinced, despite his family’s protestations, that his five week old granddaughter is in fact the Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams. Believing his Protestant cultural heritage to be under siege, Eric decides he has to do something drastic. He hires a hitman to help him solve the problem, but how far will he go? 

Written by celebrated playwright David Ireland (Ulster American) and directed by the Tron Theatre’s former Artistic Director Andy Arnold, Cyprus Avenue follows Eric as he struggles with his psychosis while telling the story of his past and his fear of the future.

Writer David Ireland said: “Since it opened in Dublin in 2016, Cyprus Avenue has been performed all over the world - from Australia and Japan to Canada and Brazil. But I’m particularly delighted to see it return to the stage in my adopted home city of Glasgow. I hope audiences in Glasgow will be as shocked, outraged and entertained as the rest of the world has been. But I also expect they’ll understand the play and its central theme - the cost of sectarian violence - better than any audience outside of Northern Ireland.” Director Andy Arnold said: “Cyprus Avenue is an extraordinary play – a real one-off. I had wanted to stage this play for many years and was delighted to stage its Scottish premiere at the Tron last year. It works so well with Glasgow audiences and it will be great to perform it to so many more folk at the Pavilion”.

Cyprus Avenue was originally produced at the Royal Court in London and in Dublin to great acclaim. 

David Hayman is well-known for his role as Chief Supt. Michael Walker in Lynda La Plante’s long-running crime thriller Trial & Retribution, which had twelve series from 1997 to 2009. Hayman was born in Bridgeton in the East End of Glasgow. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama beginning his acting career at the Citizens Theatre, playing a variety of roles, including Hamlet, Troilus, Lady Macbeth, Najinsky, Figaro and Al Capone. He gained national prominence playing notorious Barlinnie Prison convict turned sculptor, Jimmy Boyle, in the film A Sense of Freedom. 

His extensive list of film credits include supporting Pierce Brosnan in The Tailor of Panama, Bruce Willis in The Jackal and Kevin Spacey in Ordinary Decent Criminal. He also appeared in The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, John Boorman’s Hope and Glory, Macbeth opposite Michael Fassbender and Finding Your Feet opposite Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie. 

Recent releases include Raging Grace, Bull, The Ballad of Billy McCrae,Fisherman’s Friends (he has just wrapped on Fisherman’s Friends 2), Blinded by the Light, The Corrupted and My Neighbour Adolf.

David’s recent television credits to name but a few include Landscapers for HBO Max, Help for Channel 4, The Nest for BBC, Hatton Garden (which he starred in opposite Timothy Spall), Bang, Dad’s Army:The Lost Episodes, Taboo opposite Tom Hardy, London Spy, Shetland, Top Boy, The Paradise and Henry IV, Part I.

Hayman has also had huge success in directing film and TV productions. Silent Scream is a return to a study of convicts in Barlinnie Prison, examining the life of convicted murderer Larry Winters. Silent Scream won the BAFTA Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Silver Bear and Special Jury Prize at Berlin. Later followed The Hawk, starring Helen Mirren as a woman who begins to suspect that her husband is a serial killer. The Near Room is a dark and disturbing film about child abuse and corruption set in Glasgow. 

For the stage, Hayman directed the world premiere of John Byrne’s The Slab Boys Trilogy at theTraverse Theatre. On stage he appeared as Chris in the 2011 production of Anna Christie opposite Jude Law and Ruth Wilson at the Donmar Theatre, London. In 2012, he returned to the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow to play the title role in King Lear. Hayman was awarded the City of Glasgow’s gold medal in 1992, for outstanding services to the performing arts. In 2001 he founded the humanitarian charity Spirit Aid, which is dedicated to children of the world whose lives have been devastated by war, genocide, poverty, abuse or lack of opportunity at home and abroad. He has also been awarded four Honorary Doctorates. As a Broadcaster/Presenter David has fronted twenty four documentaries including Slavery: Scotland’s Hidden Shame.