72 year old veteran Irish American actor Brian Dennehy will star in playwright John B Keane's signature 1960's drama 'The Field' in Dublin next month, 45 years after the plays debut.

The ward-winning actor will play farmer Bull McCabe, the force-of-nature character at the center of Keane's unforgettable rural drama.

The play was first staged in 1965, just six years after the shocking murder of bachelor farmer Moss Moore, an event which made national headlines and after which the play was based. It was an overnight success that sealed Keane's reputation as a playwright of note.

In 'The Filed' the enduring Irish obsession with the land is reflected in both the play and the real life case of the north Kerry farmer's murder in 1959 that inspired it.

Moore's farmer neighbour had been involved in a dispute over a right-of-way of the land he had transformed from wasteland to lush pasture. He was never tried or convicted of the killing, but he was a chief suspect who inspired the role of the formidable farmer.

The play will open on January 13 and runs until February 12 at Dublin's Olympia, where it will be directed by Joe Dowling.