About A Boy
He was the cheeky chappy in Boyzone, the cheery one with the boy next door personality. Then the band broke up and he didn’t know what to do with his life. So Keith Duffy did what nobody expected: he became a well-regarded actor and soap star. As he prepares to make his debut with the acclaimed Druid Theatre company, he speaks frankly about his quest for meaning in life, the controversial break-up of Boyzone in 2000, their successful reunion and Stephen Gately’s tragic death.
Olaf Tyaransen, 16 Nov 2011
A different process with Druid, presumably?
The process in theatre is great. For four or five weeks now with Druid I’m in rehearsals with Garry Hynes, who is a fucking phenomenal director. She’s genius. Watching how she breaks it down and puts it back together, how she helps you to understand who your character is and how you become that character, that whole process is fuckin’ great fun!
Tell us about your character?
Teddy Heelin is basically what, back in the ‘50s, they called a ‘commercial traveller’, so he’d have been touring around Ireland being a wholesaler to convenience stores, making sure the products are up on the shelves and that kind of thing. I have a reputation of being a bit of a whore-master, a bit of a womaniser, very popular with the women, but with that reputation nevertheless. It’s a fucking finely written play by John B. Keane. Obviously we play it straight but there’s loads of laughs in it, loads of black humour. Druid are fantastic, probably one of the best Irish theatre production companies, with the best theatre director we’ve ever produced – Garry Hynes. For them to consider me for a job like this is a huge honour.
What’s happening with Boyzone?
Since we got back together, we’ve done three successful tours, we brought out two albums, both of which were No.1 for four or five weeks in the UK. We’ll never split up again. We’re not a band that is gonna be busy working 12 months of the year, because we’ve all got families and kids and different interests. I love my time with the band. I’d never be in the music business outside of Boyzone. Everything that happened to me – the birth of my children, my marriage, everything has been while I was in Boyzone. So it’s a part of me life I never wanna close the door on. When we’re performing together, we’re fucking good.
So what’s next for the band?
The pipeline story at the moment is that we’re 20 years together in 2013. So we’re thinking of getting back together at the end of 2012, October, November, and getting a new album together, an anniversary album of some of our favourite songs – some of our old songs and some brand new songs. Maybe do an anniversary tour. Just celebrate the fact that we’re 20 years together.
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Olaf Tyaransen
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