I, Keano

I, Keano is a comedy musical play about footballer Roy Keane leaving the Republic of Ireland national football team before the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

It is written by Arthur Mathews, Michael Nugent and Paul Woodfull, and is presented as a mock-epic melodrama about an ancient Roman legion preparing for war.

In its first two years, it had sales of over half a million tickets, generating €10m ($13m) in ticket sales. In January 2008, it began its fourth year of performances with the addition of Caroline Morahan as Surfia.

Productions

Peter Sheridan, brother of film director Jim Sheridan, directed the first production in 2005. It starred Mario Rosenstock of the Irish radio comedy show Gift Grub, and Risteárd Cooper and Gary Cooke of the Irish television comedy show Après Match.

Controversy arose during the first run when three leading cast members publicly left the show, including ironically Rosenstock who played Keano, leading to media articles about life imitating art imitating life.

Roy Keane attended the show in Dublin in 2005. Michael Caven directed the second production in 2006, which included a run in Manchester, England. Several sections of the play were rewritten substantially for its UK debut, which came on the heels of Keane's messy departure from Manchester United. Portions that were understandable only to Irish audiences were removed, and the role of "Fergie", a send-up of United manager Alex Ferguson, was more heavily emphasised. Terry Byrne directed the third production in 2007, which ran for 2 months at the Olympia, Dublin, and subsequently toured Ireland for 9 weeks.