THE PARTING GLASS Comes To Barrow Street Theater 7/20

Hot off a national tour of Ireland, Dermot Bolger's highly acclaimed new play "The Parting Glass" transfers to New York's Barrow Street Theatre beginning Wednesday July 20 for a limited engagement. The solo play stars Abbey Theatre veteran Ray Yeates as a returning Irish expat who bears witness to his country's stunning reversal of fortune. Directed by Mark O'Brien, and produced by Dublin's axis: Ballymun, "The Parting Glass" is a theatre feature of Imagine Ireland, the yearlong, multi-city festival of Irish arts sponsored by Culture Ireland.

"The Parting Glass" plays a total of 12 performances from Wednesday July 20 to Sunday July 31, at the Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow Street. The two-week schedule is Wednesday through Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 2:30pm and 9pm, and Sunday at 5pm. For tickets, which are $35, call SmartTix at 212/868-4444, or visit www.barrowstreettheatre.com

A stand-alone sequel to Bolger's internationally produced "In High Germany," "The Parting Glass" reconnects us with the restless Eoin who, back in the 80's, booted his native Ireland in favor of more prosperous Germany where he married and had a son. Now ready to reap the benefits of Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom, he returns just in time for the bust! As he watches the infamous football match in which France knocks out Ireland from qualifying for the 2010 World Cup with an illegal hand ball, Eoin starts to grasp the extent to which he may have been duped. Highlighting Bolger's signature verbal acrobatics, not to mention his fondness for football, Yeates keeps aloft multiple characters while he shows Eoin weaving in and out of his psychic maelstrom.

The Sunday Times called "The Parting Glass" "a thing of beauty." The Irish Times praised it as "a rare achievement." The Irish Examiner applauded Yeates for "mining the laughter from Bolger's script to take us beyond the anger, without making us forget it." The Guardian drove home the point that "Yeates's versatile performance carries the audience with him."

Bolger is the author of the internationally acclaimed "The Journey Home." He will be in New York before and during the run of "The Parting Glass," as well as to take part in another Imagine Ireland event, a joint reading with his friend, the award-winning novelist Colum McCann hosted by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center on Wednesday July 20 at 6:30pm.

Bolger's other plays include "The Lament of Arthur Cleary" (Samuel Beckett Award), "The Passion of Jerome" and "Blinded by the Light." With axis: Ballymun, he created a trilogy of plays set and performed in the Dublin working class suburb of Ballymun, the first of which, "From These Green Height," garnered the 2004 Irish Theater Award for Best New Play. Axis is an arts and community resource centre promoting a model of excellence and inclusion in cross-disciplinary work. Despite difficult economic times in Ireland, axis has managed to expand its resources and develop and deliver work that engages people of all ages and backgrounds in creative community engagement locally, nationally and internationally

axis acknowledges the support of Culture Ireland, The Arts Council, Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, and the Dublin City Council for making this tour possible.

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