Irish Rep Online

in Song and On Screen

Book by Hugh Wheeler
Songs by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane
Based on The Kensington Stories by Sally Benson
and the MGM Motion Picture Meet Me in St. Louis

Adapted & Directed by Charlotte Moore

Music Direction by John Bell
Orchestrations by Josh Clayton

Produced by Ciarán O’Reilly

With Shereen Ahmed, William Bellamy, Rufus Collins, Kerry Conte, Melissa Errico, Ali Ewoldt, Kathy Fitzgerald, Ian Holcomb, Austyn Johnson, Jay Aubrey Jones, Kylie Kuioka, Ashley Robinson, and Max Von Essen.

One of “The 10 Best Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Virtual Theater Productions of 2020”: “Perhaps the most ambitious virtual theater offering I’ve experienced this year.” – David Gordon, TheaterMania

In this heartwarming musical, the Smith family grapples with life changes and new love in a bustling St. Louis on the brink of the 1904 World’s Fair. This special digital adaption from Charlotte Moore (Anna Smith in the original Broadway cast) will include favorite tunes, including “The Trolley Song,” “The Boy Next Door,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” along with the romantic suitors, comedic misunderstandings, and jovial pranks that make this classic musical a treat for people of all ages.

This new digital production, filmed and edited remotely amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, is an abridged version of the Broadway musical Meet Me in St. Louis (1989), based on the 1944 film of the same name starring Judy Garland. It premiered as part of Irish Repertory Theatre’s Digital Fall Season in December of 2020 and was last presented on Irish Rep’s stage as Meet Me in St. Louis in 2007.

Read the Performance Program here!

“Another green-screen miracle… soul-warming… Even if you’re having a difficult season, it will make you smile.” – Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“The sound recording is excellent, the orchestration and the singing first rate…When the enthusiasm of the players and the lilt of the songs come together, your heartstrings may just go zing, zing, zing.” – Ken Marks, The New Yorker

“A holiday treat…with each new Zoom production, Irish Rep is stretching the boundaries of the form.” – Joe Westerfield, Newsweek

“Irish Rep has managed to top itself with this year’s yuletide offering… this show is a lovely little gift, a reminder of the hopefulness we should have as we arrive at a new year.” – David Gordon, TheaterMania

“As delicious and delightful as one could hope for…it truly is a luscious musical gift if there ever was one.” Front Mezz Junkies

“The festive environment has all of the ingenuity of a full-scale Broadway production…an almost divine holiday experience.” Theater Pizzazz

Songs by Martin and Blane published by EMI Feist Catalog, Inc.
Produced for the Broadway stage by Brickhill-Burke Productions, Christopher Seabrooke and EPI Products.

SPECIAL THANKS

A PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN

An Exploration of the Works of Samuel Beckett
Conceived and Performed by Bill Irwin
Directed for Camera by M. Florian Staab and Bill Irwin

Starring Bill Irwin

“CRITIC’S PICK! Captivating…radiant, living theater” – Ben Brantley, New York Times

Bill Irwin can’t escape Samuel Beckett. The pandemic hasn’t changed this. Two years ago, Irwin took the Irish Rep stage to premiere On Beckett, his award-winning meditation on Samuel Beckett’s works and language. Since then, COVID-19 has upended daily life worldwide, and live theatre is on hold as venues stand empty. In this time of anxiety and loss, Irwin revisits the words of Samuel Beckett, and returns alone to the Irish Rep digital stage, to bring us On Beckett / In Screen, a new meditation filmed for our current times.

In this intimate evening, Irwin will mine the physical and verbal skills acquired in his years as a master clown and Tony Award-winning actor to explore a performer’s relationship to Beckett in the time of COVID. Irwin’s approach to the comic, the tragic, to every side of Beckett’s work – including “Waiting for Godot,” “The Unnamable,” and “Texts for Nothing” – will allow audiences to experience the Nobel Prize winner’s language in compelling new ways.

Irish Repertory Theatre is proud to present On Beckett / In Screen by master clown, Tony Award-winning actor, and MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Fulbright Fellow Bill Irwin, featuring selections from works by Nobel Prize-winning writer Samuel Beckett. This is a new play, first premiering on-screen in November of 2020 as part of Irish Rep’s Digital Fall Season, was drawn from Irwin’s award-winning production, On Beckett, which premiered at Irish Repertory Theatre in 2018 to wide acclaim, winning a special Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience. Previous iterations of On Beckett have been performed at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco and workshopped at Vineyard Theatre in New York and the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Read the performance program here!

“A delight to watch….Mr. Irwin’s manner is engaging and unpretentious… [On Beckett / In Screen has] a tonic effect on the viewer, reminding us that whatever else may be happening out in the world, it is our task to overcome the deadening torpor of habit and live fully—and courageously.” – Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“Irwin enlightens us with his professorial knowledge and delivers it in a genial, conversational way, so that we emerge feeling smarter for having been in his presence. What an invigorating feeling to have, the sort that we get only after seeing a great piece of theater.” – David Gordon, TheaterMania

“A compelling homage… If you are a Beckett aficionado, or someone who would like to learn more about him and his haunting words, be sure to catch the enriching show.” – Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts

Reviews for our 2018 production of On Beckett:

“a delicious piece of theater… a playful, intimate experiment conducted by a master practitioner… utterly delightful” – Sara Holdren, New York Magazine

“masterful… Beckett’s words bloom not just with humor but with poignant emotion” – Theatermania

“near-90 minutes of pleasure…Irwin’s physical comedy is delicious… a brilliant gateway to understanding [Beckett]” – Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast

Special thanks:

Special thanks to Lisa Loosemore, Rachel McAndrew, Morgan Entrekin, Grove Atlantic, Martha Roth, Valerie Borchardt, Santos Irwin, Nan Irwin, Edward Beckett, Gary Gersh, and Vineyard Theatre. Irish Repertory Theatre would also like to thank the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Emigrant Support Program of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

On Beckett / In Screen is produced under the SAG -AFTRA New Media Agreement.

For the 2022 in-person production of A Touch of the Poet, see here.

A PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN

by Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Ciarán O’Reilly

With Belle Aykroyd, Ciaran Byrne, Robert Cuccioli, Kate Forbes, Mary McCann, Andy Murray, David O’Hara, Tim Ruddy, David Sitler, and John C. Vennema

Proud and tempestuous Cornelius Melody (Con) owns a run-down inn and tavern near Boston in 1828. Laden with debt, Con clings to his tenuous identity as a landed gentleman and war hero and chastises his wife and daughter for actions that expose the family’s humble Irish origins. When his daughter, Sara, falls in love with a wealthy American guest at their inn, Con’s pride drives him to an explosive reckoning with his true place in the New World.

The team behind Irish Rep’s acclaimed The Weir: A Performance on Screen returned to create a digital production of A Touch of the Poet, Eugene O’Neill’s tragic tale about the immigrant experience and generational aspiration, first performed in 1958, premiered as part of Irish Rep’s Digital Fall Season in November 2020. The cast and creative team from Irish Rep’s planned 2020 production, which was postponed due to Covid-19, have reconvened remotely to rehearse and reimagine the play for digital presentation.

CRITIC’S PICK “Powerful…a hearty serving of digital theater that nearly matches the real thing…a production with such chemistry and pep that it stands as a reminder of those pre-pandemic theater days of yore.” – The New York Times

“Perfectly cast and staged by Ciarán O’Reilly and brilliantly produced…it is a shining model for any company putting its work online during the Covid pandemic” – Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“This production is one that should not be missed… [Robert] Cuccioli plays Con with smoldering resignation until he erupts at the end in a revelatory tour de force.” – TheaterMania

A Touch of the Poet is produced under the SAG -AFTRA New Media Agreement.

A PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN

“a lighthearted, entertaining evening of theatrical originality…Dermot Crowley and Dearbhla Molloy are unimpeachable” – Woman Around Town

In this special engagement, two of Ireland’s finest actors, Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley, take audiences on a virtual stroll through London’s National Gallery, discovering afresh the Museum’s masterpieces from Van Gogh and Van Eyck, to Rubens and Gainsborough. With humor and grace, Crowley and Molloy breathe fresh life into each painting’s subjects with poetic stories from renowned Irish poet Paul Durcan.

Irish Repertory Theatre presented the virtual reimagining of this beloved production as part of it’s Digital Fall Season in October of 2020. Give Me Your Hand premiered in London in 2010 and received its American Premiere in 2012 in Irish Rep’s W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre.

“Intimate, varied, and engaging… Durcan’s personal poetic interpretations are delivered with humor, heart, and humanity by Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley.” — DC Metro Arts

“Give Me Your Hand offers a soul-restoring reconnection with civilization, a combination of gorgeous visuals with the ideas of a highly original mind.” — Lighting & Sound America

PRESS FROM OUR 2012 PRODUCTION OF GIVE ME YOUR HAND: 

“Mr. Crowley and Ms. Molloy are fine company. It’s all too easy to give them that requested hand.” — New York Times

CRITIC’S PICK! “Crowley is endearing and passionate… a most amusing evening.” — Backstage

“a lighthearted, entertaining evening of theatrical originality.” — WomanAroundTown

Special Thanks:

Irish Rep would also like to thank The National Gallery, London and The Coronet Theatre, London.

Give Me Your Hand is produced under the SAG -AFTRA New Media Agreement.

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A PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN

Written and performed by Geraldine Hughes
Stage Production Directed by Carol Kane
Filmed at Lyric Theatre, Belfast

“grippingly acted…rarely have I seen a one-person show, on or off-screen, that I found so immediately and fully involving.” – Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“Outstanding… packs a potent wallop” – LA Times

“a boisterous humor hums throughout…Geraldine is the engrossing anchor of this drama.” –  The New York Times

“Takes your breath away” – Chicago Sun-Times

“tour-de-force… a powerful evening of theatre” – Backstage

“Awe-inspiring” – Talkin’ Broadway

“stunning…a bravura performance.” – London Morning Star

“With stories both funny and tragic, she paints a very human portrait of a volatile political situation…Belfast Blues manages to be very special.” – TheaterMania

“This is a masterclass in acting, very well directed by Carol Kane, and Geraldine Hughes proves herself a star performer” –  The Irish News

“a stageworthy approach that distinguishes the legit thesp from the storyteller…the emotions flickering in her big, round eyes of penetrating “Belfast blue” are wide ranging and complex.” – Variety

Belfast Blues is produced under the SAG -AFTRA New Media Agreement.