The Irishtown Players, a celebrated Dublin-based theatre company, have just started rehearsals for their new play. After the astounding success of their last production, the company are scheduled to open on Broadway, with the same visionary playwright at the helm. However, trouble arises when the actors decide she’s going too dark, too experimental, and… not Irish enough? Taking matters into their own hands, the company fights to restore the Hibernian flair. Irishtown is a hilarious and searing new comedy that explores the commercialization of culture, inviting audiences to experience the fragile creative process and the potential collapse of a collective.
At its most chaotic, Irishtown brings to mind Noises Off, that classic farce about staging a play within a play in the British hinterland. Comedy, as they say, is hard; and it takes tremendous discipline and timing to pull it off. Under the tight direction of Nicola Murphy Dubey the company mostly meets the challenge though the humor occasionally seems forced. Still it’s quite a trip watching talented actors frantically portraying desperate actors acting badly.
Irishtown is like a mashup of The Play That Goes Wrong (there’ s lot of slapstick humor) and a takedown of the pretentious creative process. The tension is maintained as we wait to see will-they-or-won’t-they come up with a new Irish masterpiece. Perhaps, with some light editing, we might even be watching the said masterpiece or at least a very good night of theater.
| 2022 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2024 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | Broadway |
Broadway |
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