Irish Repertory Theatre presents
A Galway International Arts Festival
And Jen Coppinger Production
U.S. Premiere
on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage
By Paul Muldoon
Directed by Sam Yates
Starring Stanley Townsend
In Memory of Mary Farl Powers
PLEASE NOTE: ALL REMAINING PERFORMANCES OF INCANTATA HAVE BEEN CANCELLED AS OF 3/13/20. FULL PERFORMANCE UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT IRISHREP.ORG/COVID19
February 18 – March 15, 2020
Incantata is a passionate celebration of the complexities of a relationship between two artists – a moving elegy to art, life, love, and loss by Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon, interpreted for the stage by director Sam Yates and Stanley Townsend, one of Ireland’s leading actors.
Written upon the death of his former partner, Mary Farl Powers – an acclaimed printmaker who died of cancer at just 43 years old – Muldoon’s virtuosic poem explores his grief, Powers’ art, and their love through his characteristic sharp humor and ranging associative style – moving from painful lamentation to powerful reaffirmation of life and love.
Award-winning director Sam Yates (The Starry Messenger on London’s West End) teamed up with Townsend and a group of renowned stage artists to bring this masterwork to the stage – transforming the solitary poem into a multisensory experience with a haunting soundtrack by composer Teho Teardo (Ballyturk, Arlington, Grief is the Thing with Feathers); a compelling set by Rosanna Vize; evocative lighting by the multi-award winning designer Paul Keogan; cutting-edge video design by Jack Phelan; and sound design by Sinéad Diskin.
Irish Repertory Theatre is proud to present the US premiere of Incantata, which premiered to wide acclaim at the 2018 Galway International Arts Festival and was most recently staged at Dublin’s famed Gate Theatre.
Critic’s Pick! “Incantata is unique and beautiful… its life onstage has a peculiar charm, a touch of magic.” – The New York Times
“One of the most outstanding elegies of the 20th century” – The Guardian
✭✭✭✭ “a remarkable piece of theatre… a brilliantly unstable experience” – The Irish Examiner
“a monumental collaboration… as intense as it is masterful” – The Sunday Independent
“[Paul Muldoon is] one of the great poets of the past hundred years, who can be everything in his poems – word-playful, lyrical, hilarious, melancholy. And angry. Only Yeats before him could write with such measured fury.” – The New York Times
✭✭✭✭ “[Muldoon] weaves his art like black magic” – The Irish Times
“[an] emotionally gripping performance… a vivid onstage testament to art, lives, love and loss.” – Talkin’ Broadway
“a tour-de-force, a challenging work of language and love attempting to bridge the divide between life and death” – ONE Magazine
Galway International Arts Festival, Jen Coppinger, and Irish Repertory Theatre are very grateful to Culture Ireland for its support of the US premiere of Incantata.
