The King's Shadow was never supposed to be the first operetta. It started as a sketch, a handful of scenes written on a weekend, passed between two friends over coffee in Galway. But something about it would not let go.
Rob Partridge had been working on the libretto on and off for months, circling around ideas of power, legacy, and the people history forgets. When he showed the opening scene to Oran Tobin, the response was immediate: this needed to be a full production.
What followed was a period of intense collaboration. Oran's score draws on Irish folk melodies, classical operetta structure, and a harmonic language that feels completely contemporary. The result is something that could not have been written by either of them alone, which is exactly the point.
The production was staged as an intimate workshop performance, with a small cast and piano accompaniment, allowing the work to be heard in its natural state before any full production development. The response from the audience confirmed what the creative team already suspected: The King's Shadow has a life beyond the workshop.
Plans for a full production are in development.