The UK premiere of The Corn Exchange, Ireland’s MAN OF VALOUR, by Paul Reid, Annie Ryan and Michael West will be staged at Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Edinburgh from Friday 5 August (Preview Thurs 4) to Sunday 14 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011.

Farrell Blinks is an office drone with an overactive fantasy gland. His imagined, heroic adventures offer violent release from the pressures and boredom of his ordinary life - until the border between fantasy and reality begins to blur. When his demons come after him, Farrell has to find his voice and face them down.

The Corn Exchange is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed theatre companies. Its award winning productions have toured the UK, USA, France, the Netherlands and Australia. Previous work includes Happy Days (Winner, Best Lighting, Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2010), by Samuel Beckett, Freefall, Everyday, Dublin by Lamplight and Foley (Traverse 2001) by Michael West, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Mud by Maria Irene Fornés (Winner, Best Production, Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards), Lolita, adapted by Michael West and Car Show.

The Corn Exchange consists of a loose ensemble of players who practice the company’s exhilarating trademark style of Commedia dell’Arte, which encourages risk and champions precision through play.

Their creative process is a rigorous exploration of these principles, challenging and honing the talent of everyone involved in the company – artists, technicians, managers – to ensure the quality productions, inform the evolving style of the company and explore the boundaries and possibilities of theatre.

Their productions seek to explode the truth of a story in ways that thrill and inspire their audiences at home and abroad.

The Corn Exchange was founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Annie Ryan.

Artistic Director: Annie Ryan

Associate Producer: Áine Beamish