CURRENT PRODUCTION | restlessxtc

"I'm a Daylight Atheist. When the sun is out I don't believe in God, but when the sun goes down, I believe like you wouldn´t believe..."

Danny Moffat is a post-war Irish immigrant living in rural New Zealand. Cantankerous and isolated, the old man has retreated to his bedroom fortress, a bombsite of old newspapers, beer crates, aircraft parts and candlewick bedspreads. Amid the debris of a furiously varied life, he conjures the characters and narrative of his past in a twilight quest for resolution and redemption. From Irish boyhood to World War II airman to New Zealand immigrant, he retraces a life of profane exploits and irreverent adventures interrupted by a shotgun marriage and the birth of triplets.

An instant hit when it premiered in 2002, written by award-winning satirist and author Tom Scott, and still one of New Zealand´s most popular and often-performed plays, The Daylight Atheist is a funny, poignant and arresting portrait of a deeply flawed yet charismatic soul, a life lived in fierce defiance of expectation, and the emotional wreckage left behind. This much-garlanded and frequently revived work receives it´s UK premiere from Restless Ecstasy, starring the chameleonic Irish/New Zealander Owen Lindsay and directed by award-winning European wunderkind Richard Panzenböck, the production promises to transport audiences to a little-seen corner of the colonial sphere, with a highly engaging, bad-tempered, affable and utterly irrepressible raconteur as our (not entirely reliable) guide and narrator.

“The writing sparkles with wit; harrowing childhood memories are brought to life with sharply rendered details, lyrical flourishes and wildly inventive comic embellishments.” - NZ Herald Review, 2019 Auckland Theatre Company Production

“A rich and engrossing experience.” - Theatreview NZ, 2020 Touring Production

Author: Tom Scott

Cast:

Danny Moffat: Owen Lindsay

Creative Team:

Director: Richard Panzenböck

Producer: Anne Marie Sheridan

Production Assistant: Jack Fairey

Lighting and Sound: Cameron Pike

Set Design: Richard Panzenböck

Set Construction: Bailey de Paor Arts

Video and Photography: János Klotz