Over the past forty years, Sebastian Barry has created an impressive body of work and carved out a distinctive place in contemporary Irish culture. His multi award-winning plays and novels have delved into the dark crevices of family life, Irish history and that troubled space where they overlap. He has done this with an authorial voice that is like no other. This film looks at the shaping influences, on his life and work of: his actress mother; his architect/poet father; his wife and children. As a counterpoint, the film will reflect on the development of his writing career from first time playwright to becoming the Laureate for Irish Fiction.
The film will explore the universal themes of family, love, loss, creativity and redemption. It will all so explore the truism that the past is never over. As Barry has written: ‘our ancestors hide in our DNA, so do their stories’.
Sebastian Barry – Family Stories is the latest in an impressive series of writers’ profiles made by director Charlie McCarthy and producer Clíona Ní Bhuachalla. These have included documentaries on John Banville, Edna O’Brien, Colum McCann as well as the multi-award-winning Seamus Heaney-Out of the Marvellous. McCarthy says ‘I am honoured that Sebastian agreed to collaborate with us on this film. He is of course a wonderful writer, but he is also a mesmeric teller of his own life’s story’.
