Inis Nua Theatre to Present Pop-Up Play in a Pub Series at Fergie's Pub

 Inis Nua Theatre Company will open its 20th Anniversary Season by teaming up with Fergie's Pub for the return of the Pop Up Play in a Pub series. By popular demand, this beloved annual tradition will expand to include two shows this season. First up, 10 Dates with Mad Mary, by Irish-Pakistani playwright Yasmine Akram, will run from September 6 to 17, 2023. This raucous one-woman show tells the story of Mary McArdle, a tough and troubled young woman trying to find a date for her best friend’s wedding. 10 Dates will be directed by Inis Nua Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan and stars Anna Faye Lieberman as Mad Mary.

Next, Inis Nua presents the American premiere of Madame Ovary, by English playwright Rosa Hesmondhalgh. This comic-drama begins on New Year’s Eve with Rosa, a young woman who’s ready to embark on a campaign of self-improvement in the new year. But when the unexpected happens–an advanced cancer diagnosis–Rosa has to re-evaluate priorities and her only goal becomes survival. Madame Ovary is directed by beloved Philadelphia actor and director, Charlotte Northeast, and features Satchel Williams (Inis Nua’s 100 Words for Snow). The show runs November 8-19, 2023. Tickets for both shows are $32 and include a pie made by Stargazy on East Passyunk and a cold pint from the team behind the bar at Fergie's Pub (1214 Sansom Street) in Center City, Philadelphia. Tickets are on sale by calling (215) 454-9776 or visiting inisnuatheatre.org.

Inis Nua Theatre Company kicks off the 2023-2024 theatre season with A Pop Up Play in a Pub - now a two show series with the most dates ever offered. Beer and a British-style hand pie, included in the ticket price, accompany what is always a good time upstairs at Fergie’s Pub. Audiences can expect a hilarious, sometimes shocking night at the pub while also being surprised by subversive storytelling from Ireland and England. Coupled with drinks and good food, it’s a great way to welcome the colder nights of late fall. This truly unique immersive experience will have you thinking you just wandered into your favorite pub in Edinburgh. 

First up, Inis Nua teams up again with Fergie's Pub for 10 Dates with Mad Mary - a show that sold out, extended and sold out again - every last seat. It is now back by popular demand! 

10 Dates will be directed by Inis Nua Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan and stars Anna Faye Lieberman as Mad Mary. Special thanks to Executive Honorary Producers James and Jeanette Senderling, and to Associate Honorary Producers Ed and Pat Coyle. The show opens September 6th and runs through September 16th for a total of 10 performances. 

Once known as the best fighter in her hometown of Drogheda, ‘Mad Mary’ has emerged from prison slightly older and wiser–she’s the ripe old age of 25. She finds herself needing a date to her best friend’s wedding and enlists the help of a speed dating service to find one.  At times foul-mouthed and aggressively funny, Mary embarks on a journey to find a date – and finds herself along the way. Mary is one of those girls with a talent for ruining whatever good things come her way, which lends the play big laughs and unexpected moments.

“Everything I love about solo shows is wrapped up in 10 Dates with Mad Mary,” said MacMillan. “Mary forms a real connection with the audience, there are sharp comic turns, and several characters for the actor to play. Solo work is a meaty challenge for an actor, and I’m thrilled to be working with Anna again, one of Philadelphia’s most thrilling young performers. She captures Mary’s energy with such a playful, impish spirit.”

Next up, Inis Nua presents the American Premiere of Madame Ovary, a favorite from the Edinburgh Fringe. Madame Ovary is directed by beloved Philadelphia actor and director, Charlotte Northeast, and features Satchel Williams (Inis Nua’s 100 Words for Snow). Special thanks to Honorary Producers Aileen and Leo Conway and Associate Honorary Producers The Abstract Company. The show opens November 8th and runs through November 19th, for a total of 10 performances. 

It’s 2018—it’s a new year! It’s Rosa’s year! She’s going to eat better, exercise more, finally use her arts degree, and, oh yeah, stop dating losers. But before she has a chance to delete Tinder and learn to steam broccoli, Rosa will get a diagnosis that brings all her plans to a screeching halt, and she’ll have to trade her resolutions for resolve. This award-winning comedy upends expectations, playing life-or-death stakes with subversive cleverness. Fans of Inis Nua’s past solo plays such as Finding Fassbender, How To Be Brave, and A Hundred Words for Snow, will find much to enjoy in this intimately told comic monologue.

“KC [Inis Nua’s Artistic Director] called me and said she’d read a play, heard my voice in it, and would I do it?," said Williams. "I got only a few pages into this remarkable play when I called her back and said, ‘yes, I’m saying yes!’”

All performances for 10 Dates with Mad Mary and Madame Ovary will take place upstairs, at Fergie's Pub, at 1214 Sansom Street in Philadelphia.  Tickets are on sale now for $32 by calling (215) 454-9776 or visiting inisnuatheatre.org.
 

ABOUT THE ACTORS

Anna Faye Lieberman (she/they) is a scrappy, queer, theatre artist bopping between NYC and Philly. Passionate about the development of new works and the subversion of classics, they are a grounded storyteller with deep roots, who helps shape characters with her expansive, wacky imagination and love for deep investigation of the human experience. They are intent on bringing out your inner weirdo.  Regional appearances include Rapunzel/Milky White/Cinderella’s Mother in Into the Woods (Arden Theatre Co.); Jane Eyre (PAC); Carroll County Fix (Azuka Theatre); Understudy in Mr. Burns (Wilma Theatre); Peaceable Kingdom (Orbiter 3); Cowboy Bob, Marie In Tomorrow Land (Polyphone Festival); The Wild Party (University of the Arts). Film: Help Me Mary (Black Radish Films). Anna Faye Lieberman holds a BFA in  Musical Theatre Class of 2020 (University of the Arts). @annaliebz www.annafayelieberman.com

Satchel Williams (she/they) is absolutely chuffed to be back at Inis Nua! Satchel is a Brooklyn-born, Philadelphia-based actor, writer, director, and filmmaker. Since graduating from Temple University and making her Philadelphia debut at Inis Nua with A Hundred Words for Snow, she's had the pleasure of working with Delaware Shakespeare, Azuka Theatre, Passage Theatre, We're Trying Up Here Entertainment, Theatre Horizon, Tiny Dynamite, and Revolution Shakespeare. When not working on a production, they dabble as a barista, occasional teaching artist, and amateur astrologer.
 

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Yasmine Akram (she/her) is an Irish-Pakistani actor, writer and director. As a writer, she co-wrote and starred in two series of Irish Micks And Legends for BBC Radio 4 and #GODSWORK for BBC Radio 4 starring Rowan Atkinson. She began screenwriting in 2010 on the BBC Northern Ireland sketch show LOL. She wrote her first short film, War Paint, in 2017, which was funded by the BFI/Creative England. She was an additional material writer on the TV series FLACK (W/Pop) for Hattrick Productions. Yasmine has numerous TV and film projects currently in development including a pilot based on her upbringing in Ireland called WE, KHAN for Sky, produced by Witchery. As an actress she has appeared in Sherlock (Hartswood/BBC), The Reluctant Landlord (What Larks!/CPL/Sky), Humans (Kudos/C4) and There She Goes (Merman/BBC) among others. Yasmine trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she now lives.

Rosa Hesmondhalgh is a writer and actor from Yorkshire. Shortly after graduating from LAMDA in 2017 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. During treatment, she started a blog from her hospital bed called Madame Ovary, that she started to turn into a one-woman play after she went into remission. Madame Ovary was first performed at the Pleasance, Edinburgh, in 2019, where she won the VAULT Pick of the Pleasance Award.Madame Ovary was first performed at the Pleasance, Pleasance Award.

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS

Kathryn MacMillan (she/her) is a theater director and arts leader who has directed 60 productions in Philadelphia and beyond; recent productions include Unraveled (off-Broadway); Jane Eyre (PAC, also co-writer); Grounded and The Niceties (InterAct); Betrayal (Lantern Theater); and Athena (Theatre Horizon). KC’s accolades include recent Barrymore Award nominations for directing The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged (Tiny Dynamite; also co-writer) and The Revolutionists (Theatre Horizon); the critically acclaimed The Beauty Queen of Leenane (named Best Production of the 2013 season & Best Director by Philadelphia Weekly, who called her “sensationally gifted”), and I Am My Own Wife (Barrymore nominations for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production of a Play, and winner of the Virginia Brown Martin Philadelphia Award). In 2015, KC was named one of Billy Penn’s Who’s Next: 16 Young Philadelphians Shaping the Arts Scene. KC is the Producing Artistic Director of indie Philadelphia theater company, Tiny Dynamite, a position she has held since 2017.

Charlotte Northeast (she/her) is a two-time Barrymore Award winner for her work at InterAct and Lantern Theater Company. She is a graduate of Circle in the Square. Credits include Philadelphia Artists’ Collective (PAC), of which she is a former Artistic Associate; Act II Playhouse; Theatre Exile; Passage Theatre; Azuka; Montgomery Stage; Hedgerow; Orbiter 3 (Barrymore Nomination); Theatre Horizon; Delaware Theatre Company; and the Walnut Street Theatre. She has directed for PAC, InterAct, Curio, Hedgerow, and Philadelphia Young Playwrights. Charlotte is a co-creator and performer of The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged and a world premiere solo show, They’ve All Gone & We’ll Go Too which traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. Visit: www.charlottenortheast.com
 

ABOUT INIS NUA THEATRE COMPANY

Inis Nua’s mission is to produce contemporary, provocative plays from Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales which reflect those cultures’ new identities in today’s world. In its twenty year history, the company has been the recipient of 6 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre including the prestigious June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company (2014) and has been nominated for an additional 28 Barrymore Awards.

To date, Inis Nua has produced one world premiere, twenty-seven American premieres, and sixteen Philadelphia premieres. Inis Nua Theatre Company has been the recipient of grants from the William Penn Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, the Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Charlotte Cushman Foundation, MKM Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Virginia Brown Martin Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, the Connelly Foundation, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, and the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme.
 

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