Liberation Entertainment and Samson Films Present in Association With
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Liberation Entertainment and Samson Films present in association with Radio Telefís Éireann and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland with the participation of Bord Scannán na hÉireann/The Irish Film Board EDEN Directed by Declan Recks Produced by David Collins Screenplay by Eugene O’Brien (Based on his original play) Film Festivals Edinburgh International Film Festival Tribeca Film Festival Los Angeles Irish Film Festival Awards Eileen Walsh, Best Actress - 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Specs 84 Mins - Color - Dolby Digital - English - Not Rated NY PUBLICITY LA PUBLICITY Falco, Ink. Marina Bailey Film Publicity Shannon Treusch Marina Bailey Betsy Rudnick 323.650.3627 212.445.7100 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] DISTRIBUTION CONTACT FIELD PUBLICTY Liberation Entertainment Liberation Entertainment Emily Woodburne James Teel 917.403.6638 310.475.6678 [email protected] [email protected] OPENS NOVEMBER 7 th IN NEW YORK and NOVEMBER 21 st in LOS ANGELES For photography and materials please visit www.EdenMovie.net 1 EDEN CAST Billy Farrell AIDAN KELLY Breda Farrell EILEEN WALSH Eoghan PADRAIC DELANEY Breffni Grehan KARL SHIELS Eilish Moore LESLEY CONROY Imelda Egan SARAH GREENE Edel Farrell CAROLYN MURRAY James Farrell BRENDAN KELLEHER Tony Tyrell ENDA OATES Yvonne Egan KATE O'TOOLE Ernie Egan GARY LILBURN Feggy Fennelly NOEL O'DONOVAN Naomi MICHELLE BEAMISH Quenchers Quinn RICHIE RECKS Dessie GAVIN O'CONNOR Dessie's Girlfriend KATIE McGRATH Amanda LEEONA DUFF Night Watchman ALI CHABANOV Flynn's Barman PAUL NORTON Golf Club Band PAT ENNIS BERNARD COYLE JOSEPH RABBETTE ALAN RECKS Egan Party Singers DAVID PEYTON HARRY SHIELS CREW Directed by Declan Recks Written by Eugene O’Brien Produced by David Collins Co-Producer Brian Willis Director of Photography Owen McPolin Editor Gareth Young Composers Stephen Rennicks and Hugh Drumm Production Designer John Hand Sound Mixer Phillipe Faujas Costume Designer Louise Stanton Casting Director Rebecca Roper 2 EDEN Short Synopsis Breda and Billy Farrell are a seemingly happy, normal couple approaching their tenth anniversary. In private, however, their marriage shows signs of strain. As Billy begins to obsess over a younger woman, Breda desperately searches for a way to preserve their bond. Synopsis Approaching their tenth anniversary, Billy and Breda Farrell seem to have the ideal marriage. But at night behind closed doors, Breda knows that their intimate bond is slowly unravelling: she tells a friend can’t remember how long it’s been since they’ve made love, as Billy seems to have lost interest. In fact, Billy has also become fascinated with Imelda Egan, the vivacious daughter of a colleague. His brief social exchanges with her leading to unexpected thoughts that distract him from Breda. Breda hopes that the upcoming anniversary will provide the couple a chance to relive their earlier, carefree days together. She suggests that they go out separately with friends and meet up at the local club. At first, things seem to go well: but under the prying eyes of their friends and the influence of Imelda’s nearby presence, Billy panics, and makes a crucial decision that leaves Breda all alone. Next, Breda and Billy must finally begin to confront the serious issues that have caused them to slowly drift apart. An intimate, universal drama about a couple in crisis, Eden is adapted by Eugene O’Brien from his acclaimed stage play, directed by Declan Recks, produced by David Collins, and stars Aidan Kelly as Billy and Eileen Murphy as Breda. 3 EDEN About the Production Eden first came to the attention of director Declan Recks in May 2000, when both he and writer Eugene O'Brien were in Los Angeles for a screening of new films by Irish Directors, organized by Irish Screen magazine. Recks was there with his short film Quando, while O’Brien had written and acted in a short called Cold Turkey . Over the course of a week, O’Brien told Recks the entire story of Eden , occasionally acting out large sections. In 2001, the two-character play was staged to both popular and critical acclaim on the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, winning the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play. Since then, it has been performed in London, New York and around the world, and translated into ten languages. Partially because of the play’s success, Eugene O'Brien came to the attention of Accomplice TV, where producers David Collins and Ed Guiney commissioned him to write “Pure Mule,” a six-part television series for RTÉ set in the unique world of the Irish Midlands. Declan Recks wasn't involved in “Pure Mule” in the program’s early stages. As Recks remembers, “Eugene would tell me bits and pieces about the show, but we decided not to talk too much about it as there were many similarities between it and Eden , which I was adapting as a screenplay.” After several drafts, Recks was still not happy with his own adaptation, so he decided to take a break from working on the script. It was, coincidentally, around this time that he was asked to direct the first three episodes of “Pure Mule.” The show proved to be a huge hit, winning five Irish Film and Television awards (including a supporting actress nod for actress Eileen Murphy). With more success to their credit, Samson Film agreed to further develop Eden , with O’Brien tackling the adaptation and Recks attached as director. 4 Eugene O'Brien recalls the origins of the story as a way to explore part of his own cultural past. “ Eden is about where I'm from, Edenderry, in County Offaly. The characters are based on people I knew, the events based on stories I'd heard. I wanted to restore the language of the town and the innards of that environment where I'm from. That’s where the monologues came from in the play, and what I hoped to capture in a more cinematic fashion with the screenplay.” As a character study, Eden is the absorbing story of how two people stop talking to each other. Billy and Breda Farrell are a decidedly normal Irish couple, in a relationship that seems very typical but is covering up layers of complexity and contradiction. Eugene O'Brien says of Billy and Breda, “They are normal human beings. They've just drifted apart -- stopped talking, stopped communicating, stopped having sex. Breda blames herself for the marriage not being right. Billy blames himself as well… although he would never show it. They love each other, but they don’t have the language or emotional honesty to face up to their problem.” Eileen Walsh, whose subtle and illuminating portrayal of Breda earned her the Best Actress Award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York, concurs. “The crux of the problem is that Billy and Breda don't speak, they don't argue, they don't let things out, because they're so frightened of what will come out.” Walsh sees Breda as “a very simple woman in terms of her needs and aspirations. All she's looking for is contentment and happiness with her home and family.” Her colleague Aidan Kelly, who plays Billy, offers, “ Eden is about what happens when a couple doesn’t pay attention to each other, when they becomes caught in the vicious circle of normal day-to-day-domesticity, making it impossible for them to find any kind of excitement.” Billy is a man who has difficulty expressing himself. “It's a particularly male thing,” says Recks, “not being able to talk about your feelings and your emotions, and Billy is the classic portrayal of that.” O'Brien recalls how after performances of the play, men would come up to him and shake his hand and say, “How did you know that was my life and problems with drink and women?” 5 According to the writer, Billy is just a regular guy trying to get through the day. “Like us all, he has strange weaknesses, regrets and little bouts of madness. And a slight Irish problem called over-reliance on alcohol. Throw all that in the mix and you could have half the men in Ireland.” Because it was originally presented on the stage as a series of intersecting monologues between Billy and Breda, adapting the internationally acclaimed Eden to the screen presented a number of challenges. As O'Brien notes, “There are advantages and disadvantages of adapting your own material. I'm sure there's stuff I should have let go of or cut. But at the other end of the stick, you have a deep understanding of the characters that no one else could possibly have of them.” Aidan Kelly notes the inherent paradox of the original play, which he describes as “two monologues in which Billy and Breda talk about the fact that they can't talk to each other… they explain very lucidly how they cannot communicate.” O’Brien took on the problem of adapting Billy’s character by creating a more fully articulated world around Billy, an indirect outward expression of what's going on inside him. As the production moved forward with the script taking shape, Declan Recks and casting director Rebecca Roper auditioned a large number of actors for the supporting roles in film. However, the lists for the two main leads were relatively short. They tried many variations but when Aidan Kelly and Eileen Walsh read opposite each other, according to Recks, “they knocked everyone else off the scale.” As soon as he saw them, he knew they were the right ones. The same is true, Recks maintains about the kids in the films.