KT Sullivan and Steve Ross follow Covid-19 protocols in restaging their Irish Rep hit, Love, Noël, at the Players (photo courtesy Irish Rep)
Irish Rep Online
January 26 – March 7, free (donations accepted)
irishrep.org
New York City’s Irish Rep has been one of the busiest and most innovative companies during the pandemic lockdown, presenting a steady stream of online programming, highlighted by new virtual productions of previously staged shows, each available for a limited time. Called “A Performance on Screen,” the works range from gleeful musicals to haunting tales, filmed at the Irish Rep, in actors’ homes, or over Zoom using technology that makes it appear that the characters are in the same space, interacting with one another directly. Nine of the shows are having at least four encores apiece for the Theatre @ Home Winter Festival, running January 26 through March 7; tickets are free, although there is a suggested donation of $25 (or $100 for the full festival) if you are able to give. The Irish Rep has been a treasure since its founding in 1988, so it is a joy to see it continuing its established tradition during these challenging times. Below is more information about each show as well as a pair of bonus events.
January 26, February 6, 13, 18, 26, March 2
Molly Sweeney: A Performance on Screen
Geraldine Hughes and Ciarán O’Reilly reprise their roles as Molly and Frank from the Irish Rep’s 2011 production of Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney, joined by Paul O’Brien as Mr. Rice, whom he played in Keen Company’s 2012 revival. Directed by Charlotte Moore, the story of isolation and fear focuses on a blind woman who is convinced to try to restore her sight through medical means.
January 27, February 2, 14, 17, 28, March 3
YES! Reflections of Molly Bloom: A Performance on Screen
It doesn’t get much more intimate than Aedín Moloney and Colum McCann’s adaptation taken from James Joyce’s Ulysses, in which Moloney plays a lustful and heartbroken Molly Bloom, wife of Leopold. Featuring music by her father, Paddy Moloney, the show was recorded on an iPhone from a bedroom in Miami, where Aedín holds nothing back in a bold and moving performance.
January 27, February 6, 10, 19, 28, March 3
The Weir: A Performance on Screen
The Irish Rep virtual restaging of its 2013 and 2015 productions of Conor McPherson’s ghostly play will make you feel like you’re in the pub with Finbar (Sean Gormley), Jim (John Keating), Jack, (Dan Butler), Brendan (Tim Ruddy), and Valerie (Amanda Quaid) as they share ghost stories and drink on an eerie night. Directed by Ciarán O’Reilly, the show is one of the best recorded events of the pandemic.
January 28, February 3, 14, 20, 24, March 4
Love, Noël: The Songs and Letters of Noël Coward — A Performance on Screen
Steve Ross and KT Sullivan reunite at the historic Players club for a virtual edition of their summer 2019 sold-out hit at the Irish Rep, Love, Noel: The Songs and Letters of Noël Coward. Written and devised by Barry Day and directed by Charlotte Moore following Covid-19 protocols, the show features the music and letters of the English bon vivant, including catty comments about Gertrude Lawrence, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Elaine Stritch, Lynn Fontanne, Virginia Woolf, Edna Ferber, and the Queen Mother.
Bill Irwin revisits On Beckett virtually at the Irish Rep (photo courtesy Irish Rep)
January 29, February 7, 13, 17, 23, March 5
Belfast Blues: A Performance on Screen
Irish actress and playwright Geraldine Hughes says goodbye to her 2003 autobiographical one-woman show, about her childhood growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, in this farewell performance recorded in 2019 at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, directed by Carol Kane. Hughes portrays twenty-four characters as she relates her story with candor and humor, in front of a hugely appreciative home audience.
January 30, February 7, 10, 21, 24, March 6
Give Me Your Hand: A Poetical Stroll through the National Gallery of London — A Performance on Screen
Dermot Crowley and Dearbhla Molloy lead the audience through the National Gallery of London in this performance recorded at the Coronet Theatre in London and directed by Jamie Beamish. Crowley and Molloy discuss works by Van Gogh, Van Eyck, Rubens, Gainsborough, and others, enhanced by the poetry of Paul Durcan.
January 30, February 4, 12, 16, 27, March 6
A Touch of the Poet: A Performance on Screen
The Irish Rep was four weeks into rehearsal for its spring revival of Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet when the pandemic lockdown shuttered theaters across the city. But the troupe soldiered ahead, reimagining the show for a virtual audience, shipping Alejo Vietti’s costumes to wherever the actors were sheltering in place as well as using Robert Charles Vallance’s hair and wig design, Joe Dulude’s makeup, Ryan Rumery’s original music, and even Charlie Corcoran’s set. The original cast of Belle Aykroyd, Ciaran Byrne, Robert Cuccioli, Mary McCann, Andy Murray, David O’Hara, Tim Ruddy, David Sitler, and John C. Vennema, led by a terrific Kate Forbes as Nora, makes you feel welcome in the Boston tavern owned by the Melodi family, even if this is not one of O’Neill’s best plays.
January 31, February 5, 10, 20, 25, March 7
On Beckett / In Screen — An Exploration of the Works of Samuel Beckett: A Performance on Screen
Bill Irwin adapts his exquisite one-man show for the pandemic, adding elements of the lockdown as he delves into his long relationship with the works of Samuel Beckett, in particular Beckett’s 1955 collection Texts for Nothing, his 1950s novels The Unnamable and Watt, and the classic Waiting for Godot. Directed for the camera by M. Florian Staab and Irwin, it begins with Irwin walking down West Twenty-Second St. and entering the Irish Rep, an act that is both sad and defiant; we might not be able to go inside right now and watch him perform in person, but he’s not about to let that stop him from sharing his fabulous story while implying that we will all be inside, together again, at some point.
January 31, February 3, 11, 21, 27, March 7
Meet Me in St. Louis: A Performance on Screen
The Irish Rep drew raves for its abridged virtual version of the 1989 Broadway musical Meet Me in St. Louis, itself based on the 1944 Christmas movie and the 1941-42 Kensington Stories by Sally Benson. This online production was adapted and directed by Charlotte Moore, who played Anna Smith in the original Broadway cast; the book is by Hugh Wheeler, with songs (“The Trolley Song,” “The Boy Next Door,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”) by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. Shereen Ahmed stars as Esther Smith, with Melissa Errico as Mrs. Smith, Max Von Essen as John Truitt, Ali Ewoldt as Rose Smith, and Ian Holcomb as Warren Sheffield, along with William Bellamy, Rufus Collins, Kerry Conte, Kathy Fitzgerald, Austyn Johnson, Jay Aubrey Jones, Kylie Kuioka, and Ashley Robinson.
BONUS I: January 29, $10, 3:00
The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival
In May, the Irish Rep premiered Darren Murphy’s The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, a short play told over a smartphone, one of the first livestreamed theatrical works to deal with Covid-19, as Tom (Marty Rea), sick with the novel coronavirus, cannot visit his mother, Rose (Marie Mullen), who is dying and being cared for by her brother, Larry (Seán McGinley). You can watch a rebroadcast on January 29 at 3:00 as part of the Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival.
BONUS II: Ongoing
Plaguey Hill: A New Work by Paul Muldoon
The Irish Rep is currently streaming Plaguey Hill, a twenty-minute piece featuring fifteen newly composed sonnets by Paul Muldoon (Incantata, The Dead, 1904) about how he is dealing with the lockdown, read by Liev Schreiber onstage at the Rep, with gorgeous musical interludes by saxophonist Lenny Pickett.