Irish Repertory Theatre to Celebrate 35th Anniversary with THE FRIEL PROJECT Season

Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director; Ciarán O'Reilly, Producing Director) will present The Friel Project, a retrospective of the work of renowned Irish playwright Brian Friel, to take place from October 2023 through May 2024.

The season will feature three of Friel's works set in Ballybeg, a fictional town in Donegal, Ireland: Translations (1980) directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt, A Parable), Aristocrats (1979) directed by Artistic Director Charlotte Moore (Two by Synge) and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964) directed by Producing Director Ciarán O'Reilly (Endgame). The Friel Project will also include selected concert readings from the playwright's vast canon and additional planned events culminating in an exhibit in the Irish Repertory Gallery. 

Casts, additional creative team members, and further season event details will be announced at later dates.

Brian Friel (9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) is widely regarded as one of Ireland's greatest dramatists, having written over 30 plays across six decades. He was a member of Aosdána, the society of Irish artists, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Irish Academy of Letters, and the Royal Society of Literature where he was made a Companion of Literature. He was awarded the Ulysses Medal by University College, Dublin. His plays include Hedda Gabler (after Ibsen), The Home Place, Performances, Three Plays After (Afterplay, The Bear, The Yalta Game), Uncle Vanya (after Chekhov), Give Me Your Answer Do!, Molly Sweeney (Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play), Wonderful Tennessee, A Month in the Country (after Turgenev), The London Vertigo (after Charles Macklin), Dancing at Lughnasa (Winner of 3 Tony Awards including Best Play, New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Olivier Award for Best Play), Making History, The Communication Cord, American Welcome, Three Sisters (after Chekhov), Translations, Aristocrats (Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play), Faith Healer, Fathers and Sons, Living Quarters, Volunteers, The Freedom of the City, The Gentle Island, The Mundy Scheme, Crystal and Fox, Lovers: Winners and Losers, The Loves of Cass Maguire, Philadelphia Here I Come!.

The performance schedule for all three The Friel Project productions is as follows: Wednesdays at 2pm & 7pm, Thursdays at 7pm, Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 2pm & 7pm, and Sundays at 3pm.

Tickets start at $55 and will be available for Irish Rep members beginning Thursday July 27 at 1pm ET. Tickets for the general public go on sale Tuesday August 8 at 1pm ET. All tickets will be available at IrishRep.org.

 

TRANSLATIONS

Directed by Doug Hughes (Doubt, A Parable)

Previews Begin October 20, 2023

Opening Night is October 29, 2023

Limited run through December 3, 2024

Irish Repertory Theatre will produce its debut production of Brian Friel's Translations as the first installment of The Friel Project. The play takes place in late August 1833 at a hedge-school in the townland of Baile Beag - an Irish speaking community in County Donegal. Strangers have arrived in town in the form of a detachment of Royal Engineers engaged on behalf of the British Army and Government to “standardize” the Gaelic name places by translating them into English. There is friction in the community and there is also love and romance between the native and the strangers. The play illuminates the significance of language at scales both large and small and questions the meaning of cultural expression and identity in an Ireland under British rule.

Translations was first presented by Field Day Theatre Company at the Guildhall in Derry, 1980.

Translations will feature scenic design by Charlie Corcoran (Endgame), costume design by Alejo Vietti (A Touch of the Poet), lighting design by Michael Gottlieb (Endgame), sound design by Ryan Rumery (A Touch of the Poet) & M. Florian Staab (Endgame) and original music by Ryan Rumery.

ARISTOCRATS

Directed by Charlotte Moore (Two by Synge)

Previews Begin January 11, 2024

Opening Night is January 21, 2024

Limited run through March 3, 2024

Set in Ballybeg Hall in County Donegal, Brian Friel's Chekhovian masterpiece chronicles the decaying home of District Justice O'Donnell, where the family congregate for a wedding, but stay to attend a funeral. Friel's tale of three sisters and their “eccentric” brother reveals the way in which the ache of one family becomes the microcosm for the ache of a society.

Aristocrats was first produced in March 1979 at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Irish Repertory Theatre hosted a revival of Aristocrats in 2009, directed by Charlotte Moore. The production featured John Keating, Geddeth Smith, Lynn Hawley, Orlagh Cassidy and Laura Odeh, and was described as a “first-rate revival” by The New York Times and praised for a “top flight ensemble” by The New York Daily News.

 

PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME!

Directed by Ciarán O'Reilly (Endgame)

Previews Begin March 14, 2024

Opening Night is March 24, 2024

Limited run through May 5, 2024

Set in 1962, this classic bittersweet comedy revolves around the young Gar O'Donnell on the eve of his departure from Ireland to America. Gar's heartache from losing his girlfriend to a successful businessman propels him to accept an invitation to go and live with an aunt in Philadelphia. Despite the wild fantasies of what life in America might hold, and his yearning to escape the tedium of small town Ballybeg, a kind word from his taciturn father could change his mind.

Philadelphia, Here I Come! was Friel's first major success, premiering in 1964 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin, and transferring to Broadway two years later.

In 2005, Ciarán O'Reilly directed Philadelphia, Here I Come! at Irish Rep. The show featured Michael Fitzgerald, James Kennedy, Helena Carroll and Edwin C. Owens, and was described by The New York Times as a “spirited production...skillfully brought to life.” Previous to this, Philadelphia, Here I Come! was produced at Irish Rep in 1990 with a cast that included Frank McCourt, Pauline Flanagan and Brían F. O'Byrne.

 

IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE

IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE, co-founded by Producing Director Ciarán O'Reilly and Artistic Director Charlotte Moore, is now in its 35th season after first opening its doors in September 1988 with Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. Irish Rep is currently the only year-round theatre company in New York City devoted to bringing Irish and Irish American works to the stage. Recognized with the Jujamcyn Theatres Award, a special Drama Desk Award for “Excellence in Presenting Distinguished Irish Drama,” an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Lucille Lortel Award for “Outstanding Body of Work,” Irish Rep celebrates the very best in Irish theatre, from the masters to the new generation of Irish and Irish American writers who are transforming the stage. Nearly 50,000 audience members annually attend productions at Irish Rep's theatre located in the heart of New York's Off-Broadway community. Once here, they witness Irish Rep's engaging perspective on the Irish and their unique contributions to the world of drama.

For more information, visit IrishRep.org.

DIRECTOR BIOS

 

Doug Hughes (Translations)

Broadway productions include Junk, The Father, Outside Mullingar, The Big Knife, An Enemy of the People, Born Yesterday, Elling, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Oleanna, the Tony-nominated revival of The Royal Family, A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, the Tony-nominated revival of Inherit the Wind, A Touch of the Poet, Outside Mullingar, The Father, and Doubt, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Director. Off-Broadway productions include Socrates, Dan Cody's Yacht, Incognito, The City of Conversation, Death Takes A Holiday, The Whipping Man, An Experiment With an Air Pump, Flesh and Blood, and Defiance. In addition to his Tony, he has been awarded Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Callaway Awards for his productions. 

 

Charlotte Moore (Aristocrats)

Recent directing assignments: A Child's Christmas in Wales; Two by Synge; The Streets of New York; Meet Me in St. Louis*; Love, Noël*; Molly Sweeney* (*Performances on Screen); London Assurance; Love, Noël: The Songs and Letters of Noël Coward; The Plough and the Stars as part of The O'Casey Cycle; On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Three Small Irish Masterpieces by W.B Yeats, Lady Gregory and J.M. Synge; New York premiere of Brian Friel's The Home Place; World Premiere of Larry Kirwan's Rebel in the Soul; Finian's Rainbow; The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative Gala; Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory; Juno and the Paycock and Dancing at Lughnasa. New York stage appearances include A Perfect Ganesh, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Perfect Party, Morning's at Seven, Private Lives (with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), and many performances with the New York Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Moore has received two Tony Award nominations, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Drama League Award, the Irish America Top 100 Irish Award, The Eugene O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2008 Irish Women of The Year Award. She is the recipient of the St. Patrick's Committee in Holyoke's John F. Kennedy National Award and has thrice been listed as one of the “Top 50 Power Women” in Irish America Magazine. Charlotte was named “Director of the Year” by The Wall Street Journal in 2011. Charlotte has been inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame and awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad in 2019 by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

CIARÁN O'REILLY (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)

Favorite directing credits include Endgame; The Butcher Boy; A Touch of the Poet; Autumn Royal; A Touch Of The Poet*; The Weir* (*Performances on Screen);  Lady G: Plays and Whisperings of Lady Gregory; Dublin Carol; The Shadow of a Gunman; The Seafarer; The Dead, 1904; Shining City; Off the Meter, On the Record; The Weir (Callaway Nom.); Banished Children of Eve; The Emperor Jones (Callaway Award, O'Neill Credo Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Nom.); The Hairy Ape (Drama Desk Drama League and Callaway Nom.); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Drama Desk Nom). Irish Rep acting roles include Da, Juno and the Paycock, Dancing at Lughnasa, Molly Sweeney, Candida, Aristocrats, A Whistle in the Dark, The Shaughraun and The Irish and How They Got That Way. He appeared in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of A Touch of the Poet with Gabriel Byrne. He has appeared at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin and made his Broadway debut in The Corn is Green. Film & TV includes The Devil's Own (starring Harrison Ford), “Law & Order,” The Irish...and How They Got That Way, “Third Watch,” “Bored to Death” and “The Knick.” Ciarán has been inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame and has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, 2019 by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

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