Michigan Irish Rep Theatre to Present U.S. Premiere of COME ON HOME Next Month

The Michigan Irish Repertory Theatre will present Come On Home, a play by one of Ireland's leading playwrights, Phillip McMahon. The play will run at The Marlene Boll Theatre at The Downtown YMCA here on September 8th, 9th, 10th and 15th, 16th and 17th.

The address of the Boll Theatre and YMCA is 1401 Broadway, Detroit.

Reserved seats are just $20, and can be booked at the link below, which will take patrons to a secure buying site. Patrons who wish to show up on the day of the performance are welcome to "pay what you can."

"This is an incredibly important play about one of the most massive scandals of our time, and I very much want as many people to see it as possible," says Michigan Irish Rep Founder and Artistic Director David Kiley. "I don't want the price of a ticket to be an obstacle for anyone who wants to see this play."

Come On Home is a play about a family deeply impacted by the cover up of sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and brothers in the 20th century. "It is the first play I know of that deals with the tragedy straight on without any ambiguity," says Kiley. "But the playwright has treated the story with great insight, as well as offering victims and their families great hope at the end of the play...hope for healing, recovery and forgiveness."

n Michigan, there have been 811 recorded victims of sexual abuse by 454 accused priests. In the U.S., more than 11.000 cases have been recorded. More than 6,000 priests in the U.S. have been identified as abusers, with the complaints going back decades. In Ireland, a much smaller country than the U.S., nearly 15,000 cases of sexual abuse were committed between 1970 and 1990.

"For a great number of people, this tragedy is difficult to face," says Kiley. "I get it. I grew up Catholic, and have had priests in my family. But one of the ways to heal and process what took place is to process it through art. Phllip McMahon has written a tough, emotional but hopeful play. As soon as I saw it in Dublin in 2018, I knew I wanted to bring it to the U.S."

Come On Home is partially sponsored by an Anonymous gift from a victim of abuse. Come On Home is directed by Jade Sibert, a recent graduate of Detroit Mercy University. The play features Michigan actors: John DeMerell, Jordan Hayes-Devloo, Kara O'Connor, David Kiley, Sarah Burcon, Benjamin Feliciano and Peter Knox.

The Michigan Irish Repertory Theatre was formally established in 2022 as a professional tax-exempt non-profit to bring theatre and storytelling performances about Irish, Celtic and Irish-American subjects to the people of Michigan.

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