Sean O'Casey Reading Series

The W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre

Written by Sean O’Casey
Directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull
Music Director: Stephen Kennedy Murphy

Saturday, April 27 at 8pm
Sunday, April 28 at 3pm

This good-natured late O’Casey comedy is set in the Irish village of Doonavale as the villagers prepare for a Tostal celebration – a festival celebrating Irish culture. Father Ned, a catholic priest, is heard drumming to celebrate the rites of spring, and as the play goes on, the drums are interpreted by the young villagers as a symbol of love and joy.  A young woman evokes Angus the Young, the Celtic god of love, insisting on observing both the Pagan and Christian ideals of joy, arguing that the Lord would have been pleased with their revelry. In the end, the joyful young people stand to become the new town leaders. In this late-in-life work, O’Casey is striking a drum for change and joy in his beloved native land.

The Drums of Father Ned was originally scheduled to premiere at the Dublin International Theatre Festival in 1958. However, the Archbishop of Dublin, though he hadn’t read the play, was upset by its themes and refused to open the festival with Mass unless it was removed along with a new adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses. When the festival committee cancelled both productions, Samuel Beckett withdrew his three mime plays from the event, and the festival was ultimately canceled. In response to this event as well as the censorship of his collection of essays, The Green Crow, Sean O’Casey refused to allow performances of his works in Ireland, lifting the ban shortly before his death in 1964. The Drums of Father Ned ultimately premiered at the Lafayette Little Theatre in Lafayette, Indiana in 1959.

All readings are free to attend. Invitations were sent via email. To request an invitation, call the Irish Rep box office at 212-727-2737.

The W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre

Written by Harold Prince
Adapted from Sean O’Casey’s Autobiographies
Directed by Patrick Fitzgerald
Music Director: Stephen Kennedy Murphy

Saturday, April 13 at 8pm
Sunday, April 14 at 3pm

For this acclaimed 1992 Irish Rep original production, esteemed director Harold Prince adapted Sean O’Casey’s autobiographies for the stage, transforming O’Casey’s life into a riveting theatrical experience. The play covers O’Casey’s early years, from birth to his early twenties. This award-winning play showcases and illuminates O’Casey’s rich and complex early life growing up in turn-of-the-20^th-century Dublin. Audiences witness O’Casey’s evolution to master playwright, beginning with his determined self-education after an illness caused failing eyesight, preventing him from attending school. He becomes an amateur actor, takes up politics and labor organizing as a young worker, and becomes invested in the Gaelic revival.

An original Irish Repertory Theatre production, Grandchild of Kings premiered in February of 1992 at Theater for The New City during Irish Rep’s 3^rd Season. Its 19-person cast starred Patrick Fitzgerald, the Director of this Reading Series event, as young Sean O’Casey, and included two members of this season’s O’Casey Cycle cast: Terry Donnelly, and Irish Rep Producing Director Ciarán O’Reilly. The production received a Drama Desk Award and three Outer Critics Circle nominations. Time Magazine called it “Exuberant, emotionally rich” and The New Yorker stated “No synopsis could do justice to the richness of Grandchild of Kings. Every moment is alive with characters, with music and dancing, and with feelings that explode and vanish.”

All readings are free to attend. Invitations were sent via email. To request an invitation, call the Irish Rep box office at 212-727-2737.

The W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre

Written by Sean O’Casey
Directed by Nicola Murphy
Music Director: Keiji Ishiguri

Saturday, April 6 at 8pm
Sunday, April 7 at 3pm

The small village of Ballyoonagh is feverishly preparing for a visit from native son, Bishop Bill Mullarky, by redecorating the home of the richest man in town, Councillor Reiligan, to receive the clergyman. Although the festivities are meant to be formal, the many workmen hired for the occasion have other priorities, as they engage in raucous antics filled with drinking, argument, song, dance, and general merriment and confusion. As the Bishop’s arrival approaches, the town’s religious leaders organize a book burning bonfire to eliminate sources of temptation. The workmens’ ideals of freedom and joy increasingly clash with church’s puritan values, and it all comes to a head in a tragic turn of events.

One of O’Casey’s final plays, The Bishops Bonfire proved O’Casey’s continued ability to cause controversy. It premiered on February 28, 1955 at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. Before the production began, the Standard launched a campaign criticizing both the play and the playwright for his past criticisms of the Catholic Church. Police and Dubliners prepared for another riot (similar to The Plough and the Stars twenty-nine years earlier) but ultimately, the play’s most vocal critics were in the Irish papers. English and international critics reviewed the production favorably, although it was often seen as less enjoyable than his similar earlier play, Cock-a-Doodle-Dandy.

All readings are free to attend. Invitations were sent via email. To request an invitation, call the Irish Rep box office at 212-727-2737.