As Robert Sheehan takes on one of the best-known roles in Irish drama, he reflects on the preparations for his stage debut, and on life after Misfits.

With a long list of TV and film credits to his name, Robert Sheehan is making his first professional stage appearance in JM Synge’s comic masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World.

The 23-year-old star of TV superhero comedy Misfits, who quit the hit E4 show in April, is taking on the role of Christy Mahon.

Mahon is a young man who takes refuge in a pub in a small village in County Mayo, and claims that he has killed his violent father.

“The whole play is like a song”

Robert Sheehan on JM Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World

Having beguiled the locals – especially the Widow Quin (Niamh Cusack) and landlord’s daughter Pegeen (Ruth Negga) – with his tall stories, he achieves the status of a local hero.

“In the history of Irish theatre this is epic,” says Sheehan of his new role at London’s Old Vic. “This is what Macbeth or Hamlet is for a young English actor.

“It’s not to the same scale and length as Hamlet but as regards the language it is completely unique, so I would make that comparison.”

Playboy premiered at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1907, but caused riots during its opening run after some of the audience objected to what they perceived as negative stereotypes.

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