Ian Lloyd Anderson spoke to David Hennessy ahead of the London premiere of Mark O’Rowe’s Reunion at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn.
Following sold- out runs in Galway and Dublin, Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival are bringing Reunion, written and directed by Mark O’Rowe, to Kiln Theatre in Kilburn for its London premiere.
Ian Lloyd Anderson reprises his role as Aonghus. Other returning cast members include Venetia Bowe, Stephen Brennan, Leonard Buckley, Simone Collins, Desmond Eastwood and Catherine Walker, they are joined by Peter Corboy, Aislin McGuckin and Kate Gilmore.
Following its run at Kiln Theatre, Reunion runs at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.
Reunion finds a family gathering for a celebration on an island off the west coast of Ireland.
When an unexpected visitor drops by, tensions begin to surface.
Over the next 24 hours, scores are settled, beliefs are challenged, and truths disclosed.
Mark O’Rowe is the award- winning playwright of pieces like Howie the Rookie, Our Few and Evil Days and Terminus. As a screenwriter his credits include Intermission, Perrier’s Bounty and Normal People.
In 2014 Mark O’Rowe revived his 1999 play Howie the Rookie with Tom Vaughan- Lawlor playing both roles and there is another Love/Hate alumnus involved this time in Ian Lloyd Anderson.
Many will remember Lloyd Anderson for playing Deano in Stuart Carolan’s Dublin crime drama.
Ian Lloyd Anderson’s most recent screen credits include The Long Shadow, The House Across the Street, Redemption and Modern Love.
You may also have seen him in Herself, Deadly Cuts, Blood, Vikings, Game of Thrones and Dublin Old School for which he was nominated for an IFTA.
Ian has just completed filming on the 8-part series, Safe Harbour.
His theatre credits include Hangmen at Gaiety Theatre, The Plough and the Stars at Lyric Hammersmith and Common at the National Theatre in London.
How are rehearsals going? What is it like getting back into the play and the part of Aonghus?
“Yeah, it’s lovely to get back in.
“We’ve got some new cast members so you’re seeing it again through their eyes and because of that, you’re starting to find new things.
“Also just time away from a play like that, it sort of allows it to percolate in your mind without you even realising it.
“A year as an actor is quite a long time.
“Inevitably you have matured as an actor so I think you just come back to it afresh.
“But Mark O’ Rowe is, to my mind, one of the best writers in the world, never mind Ireland so to come back and work on a premiere of his is lucky boy stuff.”
Tell us about the play, it’s a family drama with all sorts of things coming to the surface..
“It is very much so.
“It’s a family drama.
“It’s not a comedy but it’s extremely funny.
“I think what we always find funny as people is when we see ourselves reflected back at us in a theatre or on a screen.
“I think Mark has such a keen eye for stuff like that.
“But I think there’s such home truths are spoken that it kind of blows a family dynamic wide open.
“I suppose the crux of the play is that once something is said or once something leaves your mouth, you can’t really take it back and so that’s kind of a pin that this play spins on.”
Tell us about your character. The play is described as a stranger coming in and that arrival provoking things that come to the surface..
“Yeah, he’s not necessarily a stranger but he certainly is someone who has, for a time, been estranged and he comes back into this family unit as a visitor, as a very welcomed visitor but time has passed and things are said.
“I think it’s that things are said and people get things off their chest, things are blown open by this man’s actions and suddenly people lay a lot of things bare.
“There are things that maybe should have been said and weren’t said and just how that can rip a family apart and rip people apart.
“That’s what Mark does with such kind of keen skill and wit and intelligence.”
What is it like to work with Mark, the writer, there as director?
“It’s awesome.
“When I was in drama school, I can remember a drama teacher saying to me, ‘Stop bringing in Mark O’Rowe scenes’.
“Because it was all I brought in, him and Conor McPherson and stuff.
“I first worked with Mark on a play ten years ago.
“You can get really nostalgic about my business but I also like to think that in 20 or 30 years’ time, some kid is going to pick up two Mark O’Rowe plays and on the page where it gives you the original cast list.
“I often think, ‘If I never do anything else in my career, my name is on two of those new Mark O’Rowe plays’.
“If you had said that to the kid that was in drama school 18 years ago, he’d have bitten your hand off for it.
“It’s a real honour.
“To do his work is one thing but to bring his work International and to go to London with his play, I think it’s a real honour.
“Just so proud to be able to show people how brilliant this writer is because he really is that good, as good as anyone to my mind and I think to a lot of people’s minds, particularly in Ireland.”
The bulk of your theatre work has been in Ireland but you have done shows in London as well..
“I’ve done a couple of shows in the National, places like the Lyric Hammersmith.
“I love it.
“I love working in London.
“I’ve never really lived in it but I’ve always spent five, six months there at a time so I feel like I’ve lived in it.
“There’s such a strong connection anyway.
“When you’re working in London, you never feel like you’re going away from home.
“I have to say I’m quite excited about going to Kilburn in particular.
“I’ve never spent much time in Kilburn although Kilburn is one of those places you just know as an Irish man.”
One of your previous London stage appearances was Common at the National Theatre with Anne- Marie Duff..
“I loved that.
“To work on that, on that stage, on the Olivier was brilliant.
“That’s a bit of a bucket list one, you know?”
You’ve done great stuff and, as you say, it has taken you to London but you are happy to stay Dublin- based. I think y ou have said in the past you have little interest in chasing ‘Hollywood’ stuff..
“A lot of my screen work takes me away, quite often the UK.
“The start of this year I was in South Africa for a couple of months filming and that’s great.
“But no, my wife is a teacher in Dublin.
“My kids go to school in Dublin.
“There’s no reason for me to uproot that now.
“Don’t get me wrong. There’s days when I think, ‘Jesus, when I was young fella why didn’t I just go to London like so many lads did and do?’
“I think when I came out of drama school, I was straight away, just getting work in Dublin and you’ve a few hundred quid going into your pocket and you’ve never had cash before so you’re kind of happy enough.
“And there’s days I think maybe I should have but I love the Irish theatre scene and the Irish acting scene.
“I think there’s such incredible actors here and directors and writers that I’ve just never felt the need to go.”
And who knows what you would have missed out on by leaving, perhaps Love/Hate?
“Yeah, that’s true.
“And nowadays actors live everywhere.
“So much audition stuff is done like this (zoom call) and the great thing is so much of the work that I go for is in the UK anyway so if someone goes, ‘Look, we want to meet you tomorrow’, it’s all accessible.”
Speaking of Love/Hat, what was it like when that came along and it really became a vehicle for yourself and other great acting talent from Ireland?
“I was massively fond of it.
“My part sort of grew very gradually throughout it but it was amazing and it’s incredible how, I think it’s been over for ten years, it’s still the big thing people talk about.
“People sort of go, ‘God, wasn’t it amazing that you were in that?’
“You sort of go, ‘Yeah, I suppose it was’.
“You don’t think about it at the time.
“I mean you’re just a young fella going, ‘This is great. I’m on this TV show. Everyone loves it in Ireland. It’s kind of really cool’.
“I’m really proud to have done it and because I didn’t have huge amounts to do in it, I think I was clever enough as an actor to go, ‘Well, if you’re not going to be doing a huge amount, learn a huge amount’.
“So I was able to watch Aidan Gillen and Tom Vaughan- Lawlor and these actors and just kind of soak it up.
“It was an incredible classroom for me really to sort of just understand what I was doing on a set, just to learn to not be intimidated by cameras and people, and that’s invaluable.
“I loved it.”
Other early roles were Game of Thrones and Vikings…
“Yeah, it was great.
“I mean the Game of Thrones thing is funny.
“I only did a few days on that but you can’t take it off my CV.
“I like that it’s there.
“And Vikings was great.
“I went out to do only a couple of scenes.
“I ended up staying and doing seven or eight episodes.
“Again, it was brilliant: Brilliant cast, brilliant crew.
“But I suppose you’re carrying experience from all the other jobs onto these things so it becomes easier. Your intimidation levels go down, your confidence goes up and that’s when you can work and spark.
“Vikings was great and because it was in Ireland for that long, I suppose if I hadn’t done it, I’d be looking back going, ‘That was there that long and I never got a go at it’.
“So really nice stuff to do.
“And again, you’re constantly learning.
“You never figure this sh*t out.”
Back to the play there is another Love/Hate link with Robert Sheehan being part of the cast for the previous Galway and Dublin iterations of Reunion. It must have been good to work with him again..
“It was lovely.
“It was really lovely.
“Seeing Robbie was great and we got to hang out loads last year in Galway when we did the play and that was lovely, reconnecting with someone who I first worked with him 12 years ago or something.
“I could always remember it was my first or second day and I knew who he was, he didn’t have a clue who I was, of course, but he was a good dude.
“And he was really good in Reunion last year and it’s a shame he’s not come back.
“But of course, as I say, we have a new cast and we’ve a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant actor Peter Corboy who’s stepping into that role and he’s just finished doing a play in the Almeida in London with Michael Shannon and Ruth Wilson.
“We’ve a f**king amazing cast on this, I have to say.
“I suppose it’s only when you start talking about it you go, ‘Yeah, I’m lucky to be doing this kind of work’.”
It’s a real ensemble piece, isn’t it?
“Yeah, there’s no lead role nonsense in this.
“It’s everyone pulling in and that’s great because it means you’re ending up with a piece where everyone’s really got to be on it and there’s nobody picking up the slack.
“You nailed it, it’s a real ensemble piece.
“There’s actors like Simone Collins and Venetia Bowe and Leonard Buckley who, I just think, is a f**king incredible actor.
“They all are.
“And then you’ve got Aislin McGuckin.
“She is coming in taking over from Cathy Belton and they don’t get much better than her.
“You’ve got to be on top of it with this cast, and it’s the way it should be.
“That’s exciting in itself.
“You can never just come into work and kind of phone it in a bit because everybody’s so good.
“And, of course, Stephen Brennan, who is Irish theatre acting royalty.
“He just goes around stealing the show for a living- but he’s brilliant. He’s really brilliant.”
Tell us a bit about your character Aonghus. Obviously he comes in and upsets things. Is that his intention or does it just happen?
“I don’t think it’s his intention but I think he just hasn’t seen these people for a long time.
“He calls over to say hello and he’s like a stone: He’s just put some ripples in the water really.
“He’s a poet and he’s from the island where they’re staying.
“These people are from the city, they’re from Dublin but he’s from the island.”
Does it get violent because Mark O’Rowe pieces can be..
“It explodes.
“There’s an eruption.
“There’s a real eruption and it’s the aftermath of that, of what’s left after that, that is where we find ourselves in this play.”
Does the island setting give the play’s characters no way out?
“Yeah, and I think that’s part of what Mark was doing.
“I remember talking to him about it.
“I sort of said, ‘Why there?’
“And he said, ‘Well because the characters can’t just leave’.
“So it’s a good place for something like that, for a play, a prolonged drama over a couple of days.
“They can’t just f**k off.
“That’s just smart playwriting.”
They just have to deal with each other really, don’t they?
“They have just gotta get on with it.”
What other themes come into Reunion?
“I suppose it’s memory and it’s the ownership people have over their own memories and versions of things.
“And I suppose the conflict between one person’s version of something and someone else’s version of something or what someone chooses to remember and what someone chooses to forget.”
You mentioned Conor McPherson before, it is an exciting time for Landmark Productions bringing new productions of Mark O’Rowe and Conor McPherson plays to the London stage..
“Yeah, and for Irish theatre in London.
“Playboy of the Western World is going into the National and Conor has just had his other play The Brightening Air premiered at the Old Vic and is bringing The Weir over.
“Conor’s an incredible playwright as well.
“I worked with Conor a number of years back on a play that he directed himself and he’s just incredible.
“These guys are up there with anyone as a playwright.
“It’s a really exciting time for us to be going over because there’s a bit of fizz about it all, you know?
“I just hope it all kind of continues to fizz and pop and I think it will.
“I think it will because the one thing that they have going for them that’s undeniable is that they’re brilliant, brilliant plays.”
Reunion is at Kiln Theatre 11 September- 11 October.
For more information and to book, click here.
Following its run at Kiln Theatre, Reunion runs at the Gaiety Theatre from 21 October – 2 November 2025. For more information and to book, click here.
