Night Train (1998)

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Night Train (1998)

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Night Train

Cast and Crew

JOHN HURT (Poole)
Oscar-nominated John Hurt, one of Britain's best-known, critically-acclaimed and most versatile actors, plays the role of Poole, a smalltime crook who is fleeing a life of petty crime that he seems to have reluctantly embarked on in the first place. Having trained at RADA, John made his West End debut in 1962 and went on to take the 1963 Critics' Award for Most Promising Actor in The Dwarfs. For the stage, John has also appeared in Pinter's The Caretaker, O'Casey's Shadow of a Gunman, Stoppard's Travesties for the RSC and, in Ireland, Shaw's Man and Superman at the Gaiety. But it was his defining roles for Alan Parker as Max in Midnight Express (1978) and as John Merrick in David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) that thrust him into the international spotlight with Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor, respectively. (He received BAFTA and Variety Club Awards for both roles and a Golden Globe Award for Midnight Express). John's other film work includes Fred Zinneman's A Man for All Seasons (1966), Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), Sam Peckinpah's The Osterman Weekend (1982), and a trio of roles in 1984 which rewarded him with three Evening Standard Awards for Best Actor for that year: 1984, The Hit and Champions. John's impressive body of television work commenced in 1961 and has included such notable roles as Caligula in Robert Graves' I, Claudius (BBC, 1976), Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (BBC, 1978) and, most memorably, as Quentin Crisp in the autobiographical The Naked Civil Servant (Thames, 1975) (for which he received a Best Actor Emmy and a BAFTA Best Television Actor award) which led Crisp to opine that "John Hurt is my representative here on Earth". Among his other television roles, John picked up the BAFTA Best Television Actor award in 1975 for the BBC's Nijinsky -- God of the Dance and a 1991 Best Actor Award at the Monte Carlo TV Awards for his role in LWT's Red Fox.. Derbyshire-born, but a self-proclaimed Hibernophile, John has lived in Ireland for the past ten years and has appeared in several Irish feature productions such as John Huston's Sinful Davey (1969), Jim Sheridan's The Field (1990), and the BBC's Journey to Knock (1991), directed by David Wheatley. Recent film work has included Robert Zemeckis' Contact (1996), Gus van Sant's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1992), Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1994) and John Boorman's Two Nudes Bathing for which he received a Cable Ace Award in 1995. He recently starred in the title role of George Sluizer's EU drama The Commissioner, as Giles De'Ath in Richard Kwietniowski's Love and Death on Long Island with Jason Priestley, and in the forthcoming feature directing debuts of Jeremy Thomas (All the Little Animals, with Christian Bale), and Matthew Modine (If Dog Rabbit).

BRENDA BLETHYN (Alice Mooney)
Brenda Blethyn, the other Oscar-nominated cast member, plays Alice Mooney, a quiet, middle-aged woman who sees life passing her by as she stays at home to tend to a demanding and unappreciative mother. A native of Ramsgate, Brenda trained at Guilford and was with London's Bubble Theatre and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, before joining the National Theatre in 1975. Brenda's main work has been for television and on stage, much of which has been with the National Theatre. Brenda's film career took off in 1992 playing Mrs Jenkins in Nic Roeg's The Witches, followed by Mrs McClean in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It, before her acclaimed role in Secrets and Lies. Her performance as the world-weary Cynthia in Mike Leigh's - film earned her a 1997 Oscar nomination for Best Actress, a Best Actress Golden Globe award from BAFTA as well as the Best Actress Award at Cannes and she topped film critics' lists from Los Angeles to Boston and London. Since then Brenda has starred in Nick Hurran's Remember Me and Scala's The Rise and Fall of Little Voice directed by Mark Herman and co-starring Jane Horocks with Michael Caine. Other film work completed over the past 18 months includes the Australian thriller In the Winter Dark adapted from Tim Winton's menacing novel by director James Bogle, Charlie Peters' MGM romantic comedy Music from Another Room, with Jude Law, Martha Plimpton and Jennifer Tilly which opened in the U.S. in April 1998, and the poignant comedy Girl's Night with Julie Walters and Kris Kristofferson, directed by Nick Hurran. Brenda stars in Christopher Cain's Manhattan cabaret scene love story, Keeping Time, which she will also executive produce in summer '98. For the National Theatre, she has worked with directors Maximillian Schell (Tales from the Vienna Woods) as well as with Bill Bryden, Peter Wood and Elijah Moshinsky in, among many other productions, A Midsummer Night's Dream (as Hermia), The Provok'd Wife and Troilus and Cressida. Awards for her theatre work include the 1991 Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Talent in Lynne Meadow's Absent Friends at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in Michael Blakemore's Benefactors at the Vaudeville and the Best Supporting Actress at the Cinzano Critics' Awards for Steaming, at the Comedy Theatre. Brenda has worked with John Hurt before, playing his wife in The Storyteller, which was directed for television by Charles Sturridge. Other tv roles have included appearances in The Buddah of Suburbia, Yes Minister, Alas Smith and Jones and Rumpole and she received the 1994 Best Comedy Actress at the British Comedy Awards in Nick Hurran's BBC cricket comedy Outside Edge where she can be seen regularly playing opposite Secrets and Lies co-star Timothy Spall.

PAULINE FLANAGAN (Mrs Mooney)
Pauline plays Mrs Mooney, the crotchety elderly mother of Alice, who is determined to keep her daughter at home with her. A native of Ireland, Pauline has spent most of her working life in the U.S. and has appeared there in countless Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional and repertory productions as well as on television. Having trained with Anew McMaster in Ireland in the mid-50s, Pauline moved to Seattle where she worked in repertory theatre before moving to St Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and finally settling in New Jersey to be close to the New York theatre scene. Broadway productions have included Lost in Yonkers, Corpse, Steaming, The Innocents and Under Milkwood, while her Off-Broadway credits include the first Molly Bloom in Ulysses (with Zero Mostel), My Fair Lady, Philadelphia Here I Come and, with director Siobhan O'Casey, Three Shouts from a Hill and Shadow of a Gunman. Prior to working on Night Train, Pauline played the role of Mrs Flynn in the Abbey Theatre's award-winning production of Tarry Flynn, Juno in the Gate Theatre's Juno and the Paycock and Bessie Burgess in The Plough and the Stars in the Irish Rep in New York and an Australian tour with the Gate's Beckett Festival.

RYNAGH O'GRADY (Winnie)
Rynagh plays Mrs Mooney's nosey neighbour Winnie, confidante and fellow television-watcher of the old lady and wife of Walter. Rynagh's film experience is extensive, having worked on Pen Densham's Moll Flanders (1996), Stephen Frears' The Commitments (1992), Alan Parker's The Commitments (1991), Ron Howard's Far and Away (1990), Warren Beatty's Reds (1986) and Tony Scott's The Author of Beltraffio. Television work includes, for the BBC, August Saturday (director: Diarmuid Lawrence) and Blooming Youth (director: Les Blair), Yanks go Home, In the Heel of the Hunt and the lead role in Ed Bennett's Tales Out of School. Having attended the Abbey School of Acting, Rynagh performed there in Borstal Boy, Macbeth and in a solo show, Mamie Sighs . She has also appeared with Druid in Philadelphia Here I Come, in The Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre and has directed several television, stage and radio projects.

PETER CAFFREY (Walter)
As the sheepish, ineffectual husband of Winnie, Peter Caffrey plays Walter, a man forced to confront his transvestism to bring Mrs Mooney's assailant to justice. Peter has had a long and varied career in Irish and British film, television, theatre and radio. At the National Theatre, Peter has appeared in Whale (directed by Tim Supple) and The Crucible and Piano, both directed by Howard Davies. He has also appeared at the Hampstead Theatre in Valued Friends and Brian Friel's Aristocrats, directed by Robin Lefevre on both occasions, at the Bush Theatre in Handful of Stars (playing Billy Roche) and in Children of a Lesser God at the Albery Theatre which led to a Best Actor nomination for 1983/84. Irish theatre work has included The Patrick Pearse Motel at the Abbey, Down Unto the Blue for Rough Magic, Poor Beast in the Rain for Druid and The Borstal Boy at the Gaiety. For television, Peter has had major roles in Channel 4's tv film Criminal Conversations, RTE's series Bracken and The Burke Enigma as well as in two BBC Northern Ireland series The Hanging Gale and Shannongate. He has also appeared in episodes of Glenroe, The Bill, Coronation Street, Between the Lines, Fr Ted and Casualty. For film Peter has appeared in Taffin, Venus Peter and Voice of the Heart. His scene-stealing role as the verbose Frank Grogan in Paddy Breathnach's 1997 gangster comedy I Went Down was one of the highlights of that award-winning film.

PAUL ROE (Blake)
As Blake, Paul Roe plays the ruthless young hit-man who's been assigned by crime lord Billy to find Poole and the money he owes the organisation -- at any cost. A graduate of the Focus Theatre's Stanislavski Studio, Paul has worked with director John Lynch before at the Focus (A Lie of the Mind ) and at Andrews Lane (Lonestar) as well as on television (Career Opportunities for RTE/BBC and several episodes of Fair City). Paul's other theatre work includes The Man from Clare at the Gaiety, Private Wars at the Focus and Stags and Hens at Andrew's Lane. Feature productions have included Ken Cameron's Disney World War II telefilm Miracle at Midnight shot in 1997 and Suri Krishnamma's A Man of No Importance (1995). He has also featured in several short films such as Eve Morrison's Blinder (1996), Ciaran Donnelly's Pinned (1997) and, playing the lead role of Danny, in Peter McKenna's Racing Homer (1998).

LORCAN CRANITCH (Billy)
The ruthless and tasteless criminal gang boss Billy, who is pursuing Poole for the money he owes him, is played by stage and screen veteran Lorcan Cranitch. RADA-trained Lorcan's feature work has included productions such as Gillies MacKinnon's The Playboys, Anthony Page's Final Warning and David Wheatley's The Magic Toyshop. He has appeared in several British tv series including The Bill, Cracker, Parnell, Family and The Heart Surgeon and in tv films You Me and Marley, directed by Richard Spence and Michael Bogdanov's Granada production of Macbeth. He also played the lead role of Leo Doyle in the acclaimed BBC post-prison drama Life After Life, directed by Tim Fywell. His extensive theatre work includes Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and Famine at the Abbey, Dublin, A Woman of No Importance and The Importance of Being Ernest at the Gate, Dublin, Translations at the Lyric, Belfast, Bussy D'Ambois at London's Old Vic, A Whistle in the Dark at the Royal Court and The Merchant of Venice at the Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow. Most recently Lorcan appeared as Danny Bradley in Pat O'Connor's film version of the Broadway hit Dancing at Lughnasa, starring Meryl Streep and Catherine McCormack and as Tony in Roger Michel's Titanic Town.

CATHY WHITE (Liz)
Cathy plays the part of Liz, the callous moll of gangster Billy. She has apppeared in many recent Irish features including John Boorman's I Once Had a Life, Roger Michel's Titanic Town, Trish McAdam's Snakes and Ladders and Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Nothing Personal. In addition, she has appeared in the BBC productions The Buddah of Suburbia, directed by Roger Michel and Tony Smith's Grushko as well as Lionel Mill's short film The Big O. Cathy trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and her extensive theatre credits include several productions at the RSC (Comedy of Errors, The Last Days of Don Juan), Dublin's Abbey (Tarry Flynn, The Last Ones, The Trojan Women), the Lyric in Belfast (Dancing at Lughnasa) and Manchester's Royal Exchange (Julius Caesar, Absurd Person Singular).

JOHN LYNCH (Director)
John Lynch is a film/ television/ stage director, producer and writer. Two of his plays ("All You Need Is Love" and "Close The Pantry Door") have been produced by the Abbey Theatre Dublin and "Poor Old Joe" won the O.Z.Whitehead Award and the Evening Herald Award for Play of the Year. "Poor Old Joe" has been produced in London and Los Angeles. John Lynch is the director of the critically acclaimed feature film "Night Train" starring Oscar Nominees John Hurt and Brenda Blethyn for which he received the nomination BEST EUROPEAN FILM at the Brussels Film Festival and John Hurt won BEST ACTOR at the Schermi d'Amore Film Festival Verona.

He has written and directed many plays for Radio and Television and wrote the Feature screenplay "Revenge" for the Blake Edwards Company, Hollywood. Notable productions for Radio were "Hassan" by James Elroy Flecker starring Micheal Mac Liammoir, John Arden's "Serjeant Musgrave's Dance" with Colin Blakely, "Artist Descending a Staircase" by Tom Stoppard with Lynn Redgrave and O'Casey's "The Shadow of a Gunman" starring Donal McCann. He has written and directed documentaries for Television: "Green Fields and Far Away", "To Bed with Palladio, Rising with Lutyens, Sam Stephenson - The Dublin Architect" and "Bobby Lamb - A Celebration" on classical composer and jazz trombonist Robert Lamb. He has written and directed a feature documentary on the Abbey Theatre for its centenary in 2004, "The Abbey Theatre - The First 100 Years." The documentary has been screened twice on National Television and at the Boston and Montreal Film Festivals. .

John has worked as a producer/director at Radio Telefis Eireann Television and on co-productions with Channel Four, the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union. Among these were film adaptations of James Joyce's "A Painful Case" starring Sian Phillips, Sean O'Faolain's "Lovers of the Lake", James Plunkett's "The Eagles and the Trumpets", and William Trevor's 'Access to the Children" with Donal McCann. He was director and Executive Producer of "Glenroe" when it achieved the highest ratings for a drama series in the history of Irish Television in the 1990/1 season. In 1996 he took "Fair City" to the top for the first time. He won "The Sunday Independent/Irish Life Award" and "The Kilkenny Media Award" for "Glenroe", "The Rockies Award" at the Banff Television Festival Alberta, Canada, and "The Unda Award", Monte Carlo, France, for his film adaptation of Sean O'Faolain's short story "Lovers of the Lake". He also won a "Jacobs Award" for his documentary film "The Law Courts".

He has directed many stage plays in England and Ireland, among them Behan's "The Hostage", O'Casey's "Bedtime story", "The End of the Beginning", James McClure's "Lone Star", Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind" and Neil Donnelly's "The Reel McCoy". John Lynch trained as a stage actor at the Abbey School of Acting and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London) where he won he Sir Kenneth Barnes and Diana Wynyard Scholarships and the Emile Littler Award. He worked as a freelance actor in British stage, film and television before returning to Ireland to direct and write Radio drama at RTE.

John is a founder member of The Irish Writers' Centre and until recently Chairman of the Board. He was for many years Chairman of The Society of Irish Playwrights and a Shareholder at the Abbey Theatre. He has served on the advisory committee to the Board of the Abbey Theatre on the nomination of the Irish Playwrights' and Screen Writers' Guild. He is a board member of the Irish Playwrights and Screen Writers' Guild.

John is to direct the feature film "Tillsonburg" in Ontario, Canada for Savi-Media (Toronto)/Subotica Entertainment.

John Lynch on Directing Night Train

AODHAN MADDEN (Screenwriter)
Dublin-born Aodhan Madden began his writing career with the Irish Press Group where he worked until 1990 as a theatre and film critic. His creative writing career took off in 1983 when his first stage play, The Midnight Door, was shown at Dublin's Abbey Theatre. It starred Ray MacAnally, Marie Kean and David Kelly and was nominated play of the year. The following year another play, The Doss House Waltz, won the O.Z. Whitehead Award and the International Herald Tribune Award at the Dublin Theatre Festival. Madden's other theatre work has included Sensations at the Abbey, Private Death of a Queen with Anna Manahan at the Eblana (which also won the O.Z.Whitehead) another one-woman show Josephine in the Night starring Maureen Toal, Candlemas Night directed by Conall Morrison and Messiah Damned which goes into production in London in late 1998. His acclaimed youth play, Sea Urchins (Project 1988) is being developed as a feature film project with director Cathal Black. As well as numerous radio plays for RTE and BBC Radio 4, Madden had a collection of short stories published in 1991 ("Mad Angels of Paxenau St") and is working on a second. He won the Francis MacManus Award in 1992 He has also completed a semiautobiographical novel. Night Train is his first feature script.

TRISTAN LYNCH (Producer) and DEREK RYAN (Co-producer)
Coming from the music industry has proved to be of immense benefit for the production team of Tristan Lynch and Derek Ryan. Both are former band members and, having managed a number of bands, are well-versed in the business side of the music industry. The pair have had dealings with Polygram U2's Mother label and set up Bow Lane Recording Studios. Derek is a chartered accountant and became involved with Tristan when Tristan was managing the band Bumble, who provide some of the soundtrack for Night Train. At the same time they were making what they describe as "guerrilla tv programme-making" for Irish national broadcaster RTE. The T.V. drama Fireflies and ambulance documentary D 104 were made through their production company Zappo Productions. They set up Subotica Productions five years ago to develop Night Train which is their first feature production.

SEAMUS DEASY (Director of Photography)
Seamus is one of Ireland's leading cinematographers who started his career with national broadcaster RTE. His most recent credit as director of photography was John Boorman's 1997 black & white biopic of Dublin crime lord Martin Cahill "The General" starring Brendan Gleeson and Jon Voight. Prior to that, Seamus photographed Angela Mooney Dies Again (1996), starring Mia Farrow, for director Tommy McArdle and The Boy from Mercury (1995) for Martin Duffy. He has also worked with Boorman before on Two Nudes Bathing (1994), starring John Hurt and Angeline Ball, and I Dreamt I Woke Up (1991), while Budawanny, The Bishop's Story and Poitin are among the feature projects that he has worked on with director Bob Quinn. For tv his DP credits include Landsceer (director Derek Bailey), Bill Miskelly's The End of the World Man, The Debs, a Channel 4 drama series, and extensive news, current affairs and documentary work for RTE, BBC and Channel 4.

PAT DUFFNER (Editor)
Ireland's leading editor has been involved in many of the more high-profile Irish projects in recent years including Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989) and The Field (1991) as well as Peter Ormrod's Eat the Peach (1985). He also recently edited Neil Jordan's "Michael Collins". More details on request.

MAEVE PATERSON (Costume Designer)
As well as having a strong background in theatre, Maeve Paterson has become one of Ireland's foremost costume designers for film. Major feature productions have included The Nephew (1996) starring Hill Harper and Pierce Brosnan, Stuart Gordon's Space Truckers (1997) with Dennis Hopper, Broken Harvest (1994) and The Fantasist. Most recently Maeve designed the costumes for John Boorman's Dublin crime biopic I Once Had a Life, starring Brendan Gleeson and Jon Voight. Notable theatre work since 1978 has included The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wilde at the Gate, The Chastitute at the Gaeity and Children of Lesser God at the Olympia and London's Alderbury. For television Maeve has designed for the Irish-language drama Draiocht plus period biopics Marie Curie and A Tale of Two Isaacs. Other credits include numerous commercials and the Sabane tv production Mystic Knights of Tir na n0g, a celtic action/fantasy series which is shooting throughout 1998 at Ardmore Studios.

ALAN FARQUHARSON (Production Designer)
A graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin-born Alan Farquharson spent 18 years with RTE's Design Department where he worked on a wide range of projects. Work at RTE included studio-based shows (The Late Late Show, Kenny Live), outside broadcasts (RTE Proms, Cork Jazz Festival plus the 1993 and 1995 Eurovisions from Millstreet and the Point) and feature-length drama productions such as Diary of a Madman, Hello Stranger and The Treaty. His theatre work includes West Side Story and A Life at the Olympia and Borstal Boy at the Gaeity. Since leaving RTE in 1996, freelance credits have included several productions for Teilifis na Gaeilge, the Faith of Our Fathers and Gael Force shows at the Point and the Royal Jubilee Celebration Concert in Trondheim for Norwegian Television.