Overview
Stephen began his career in musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, before becoming a member of the Abbey Theatre company in 1975, where he remained for eight years playing a wide variety of roles including Joe Dowling’s productions of She Stoops To Conquer, Philadelphia Here I Come! and A Life, (Irish Times Awards Best Supporting Actor). He also played the title role in Hugh Leonard’s play Da, and was the Abbey’s first Hamlet in 1983, directed by Michael Bogdanov. He spent a year at the Royal National Theatre in London in 1984, and since then has done a large body of work at the Gate Theatre Dublin, most recently as Mr Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, which also played in Hong Kong last Spring, Port Authority (Ambassadors Theatre, London) The Threepenny Opera, Bedroom Farce, My Cousin Rachel, A Woman of No Importance, Hay Fever (Spoleto Festival Charleston 2012), Jane Eyre, and Death of a Salesman. Stephen played Garry Essendine in Present Laughter (which also transferred to Spoleto Festival in Charleston in 2010), The Real Thing, Private Lives, Waiting for Godot (National Tour and worldwide), Old Times, The Pinter Landscape, (Lincoln Centre, New York), Higgins in Pygmalion, Rochester in Jane Eyre, Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, Serge in Art, and title roles in Tartuffe and Cyrano de Bergerac. Plaza Suite & Phaedra (Rough Magic); Blackbird (Landmark Productions); The Shaughraun (Albery Theatre, London); The Life of Galileo (Project), Frank n’ Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and Oedipus at the Gaiety are among his other favourite roles. In 2015 Stephen was a guest in Minneapolis where he played Captain Boyle in Joe Dowling’s production of Juno and the Paycock at the Guthrie Theater. He most recently appeared as Sorin in The Seagull at the 2016 Dublin Theatre Festival. Film & Television includes: The Tudors; Eat the Peach; The General; The Boys from Clare; A Piece of Monologue and Waiting for Godot for Beckett on Film; Twice Shy; El Cid; Ballykissangel; Father Ted; Bachelor’s Walk…