The Most Beautiful Letter in the World

KARL O'NEILL was born in Armagh, and now lives in Dublin. He is a theatre, radio, and television actor, currently portraying Tim Carney in RTE's popular soap 'Fair City'. This Christmas Karl will play the eponymous Wizard of Oz at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. This is to be the last ever production in that historic venue before it is demolished. Karl has performed in a wide variety of theatre roles - including Malvolio in 'Twelfth Night', Sir Robert Chiltern in 'An Ideal Husband', and Tarry in 'Tarry Flynn' among others. He has also participated extensively in the musicals of Paul Boyd, playing such diverse parts as Tweedledee/March Hare/White Knight in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', Father/Fats the Frog/Francis Drake in 'Hansel & Gretel', Louis in 'Red' and Geppetto in 'Pinocchio'). Karl is particularly fond of the parts he has played in these musicals because as far as he is concerned, nothing compares to the palpable anticipation, excitement and honesty of an audience of children. Karl finished writing The Most Beautiful Letter In The World while rehearsing the Little Red Kettle's production of 'Peter Pan' at the Theatre Royal, Waterford in 2005. Karl feels forever indebted to Anne O'Riordan( the marvellous Peter Pan), as well as to the rest of the fantastic cast of children for all their encouragement when he tentatively passed the story around for comment. The Most Beautiful Letter In The World was written for Karl's niece Sheena's 9th birthday on Christmas Day 2005. Karl let her 'discover' the story inside a red envelope marked To you which he left beside a War Memorial monument in The Mall, a park in Armagh, on that Christmas Eve.