1st Irish Festival: Marriage, Monsters & More On The Stage

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Theater

Published on Tuesday, 03 January 2023 20:26

Written by Brad Balfour

Now in its 15th installment and returniong to in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the Origin Theatre’s 1st Irish festival returns in 2023. Running three weeks from Monday January 9 to Tuesday January 31 at venues across the citincluding the  59E59 Theaters, the Irish Repertory Theatre, the Irish Arts Center,The Cell, and Symphony Space in Manhattan; the NY Irish Center in Queens, and An Beal Bocht in The Bronx. The 1st Irish Festival features productions, readings, workshops, and more from Ireland and the United States.

The Festival opens officially with the US premiere of “Heaven” produced by Dublin’s Olivier Award-winning Fishamble  theatre company. Written by Eugene O’Brien (winner of the Rooney Prize for Literature for “Eden”), and directed by Jim Culleton (Irish Times Best Director Award winner 2019), “Heaven,” Set in County Offaly, Ireland during the weekend of a local wedding, guests Mairead and Mal are struggling to keep their marriage together. Perhaps attending a wedding will help, or it might raise questions that are difficult to answer. “Heaven” examines family bonds, life decisions, and the search for happiness in contemporary Ireland.

“Frankenstein's Monster Is Drunk And The Sheep Have All Jumped The Fences” follows the titular creature, dejected at the end of his career in Hollywood, he goes off in search of love in a remote village.

“Endgame” tells the story of Hamm (John Douglas Thompson) who is reduced to living in one room, in which he sits chair bound, blind and bored. His only deliverance from this interminable monotony is the company of his aging, legless parents (Joe Grifasi and Patrice Johnson), who live in garbage bins and his limping servant, Clov (Bill Irwin), who is at his beck and call, and who like a dog comes when whistled for. The only thing left for Hamm is to wait for the inevitable end.

Among the Festival highlights: a mini festival-within-the-festival at the cell -- “Femme First” – featuring workshop productions of three new plays by local women playwrights.  Seen in rep at the cell the series includes “Great White American Teeth” written and performed by Fiona Walsh; “The Funny Thing About Death,” written and performed by Kim Kalish, and “It’s in the Play,” written by Orlagh Cassidy and Kate Lardner and performed by Cassidy.

To learn more, go to: https://www.origintheatre.org/

1st Irish Festival
January 9 - 31, 2023

Various Venues Throughout New York

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