The Reckoning: a new play by Brian McAvera

Rehearsed Reading, Friday 2^nd October, 2pm

The Reckoning is a new play by Brian McAvera about Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto, once almost forgotten, yet now recognised as one of the most important artists of the Renaissance.

Lotto painted compositionally daring portraits and religious altarpieces. Today, his work is regarded as better even than Titian or Tintoretto. This is because he quarried not only for external appearances but also the psychology of the sitter. Put simply, he tried to go inside their heads.

Lotto never married, was intensely religious, and was somehow forgotten within a decade of his death, only to be resurrected by the famous art historian Bernard Berenson at the end of the nineteenth century.

Thanks to a substantial award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, playwright and curator Brian McAvera journeyed through Italy, following in Lotto’s footsteps. The result is a play which looks not only at his art but at his personality, his sexuality, his religious impulses, and at the culture of the time.

It is a two-hander, set in a seeming Purgatory (though not the one that we think we know about) in which Lotto finds himself being interrogated by a female Reckoner, who is not about to be cowed by any man!

McAvera is perhaps best known for the cycle of eight plays Picasso’s Women, which have been translated for productions in over twenty languages.

If you are interested in reading about the background to the play, McAvera has produced a series of illustrated posts for LinkedIn which trace the journey that he made in Italy.

This is a free event but spaces are limited so please book your place here.

Cast:

Lorenzo Lotto: Ruairi Conaghan

The Reckoner: Mary McGurk

Director: Joe Devlin

Consultant: Michael Quinn

Running Time: 90 minutes (Approx).

Funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Accessibility 

The Upper Gallery is accessed via lift from the ground floor or via the main staircase.

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Please let us know if you have any questions or additional requirements, we are working hard to make the gallery as accessible as possible for everyone.

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