''The Innocent'' is a 1979 play by Scottish playwright Tom McGrath. It was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the

Warehouse Theatre The Warehouse Theatre was a professional producing theatre in the centre of Croydon, England. Based in an oak-beamed Victorian former cement warehouse, it had 100 seats. The theatre closed in 2012 following withdrawal of funding and the disco ...

in London, opening on 24 May 1979. The production was directed by Howard Davies and starred

Ian Charleson Ian Charleson (11 August 1949 – 6 January 1990) was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell in the Oscar-winning 1981 film '' Chariots of Fire''. ...

. The play is autobiographical, and concerns McGrath's psychedelic drug and heroin use in the counter-culture 1960s as an underground poet, writer, and musician. The protagonist Joe Maguire is an idealistic intellectual and existentialist, a jazz-playing underground newspaper editor, who is drawn into heroin use and becomes a junkie.Ian McKellen, Alan Bates, Hugh Hudson, et al
''For Ian Charleson: A Tribute''
London: Constable and Company, 1990. p. xix.

Original cast

*Joe Maguire ...

*Suzie ...

Ruby Wax Ruby Wax (; born 19 April 1953) is an American-British actress, comedian, writer, television personality, and mental health campaigner. A classically-trained actress, Wax was with the Royal Shakespeare Company for five years and co-starred on t ...

*Rick ... David Lyon *Heggie ...

Hilton McRae Hilton McRae (born 28 December 1949) is a Scottish actor, working in theatre, television and film. Career McRae was part of the radical theatre group 7:84 before graduating from the University of Edinburgh, and by 1977 he had joined the Royal ...

*Heggie's Maw ...

Eve Pearce Eve Pearce (17 April 1929 – 13 January 2023) was a Scottish actress. She performed in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions. Early life Eve Pearce was born in Aberdeen to a very poor family and was brought up in a one-roomed tenement, h ...

*Malachie ... Anthony Higgins *Andy ... David Bradley *Jay ... Paul Moriarty *Brenda ... Sheridan Fitzgerald *Kate ... Avril Carson *Pie Mackay ... Mark Windsor *Sonny ... Alan Cody *Dr. Smith ... Darlene Johnson

Notes

External links

McGrath obituary
– ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''
McGrath obituary
– ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Innocent, The 1979 plays British plays Plays based on actual events Autobiographical plays