Unraveling the Mystery of The Beacon 

By: Andi Grene

The Beacon, written by Nancy Harris and starring Kate Mulgrew, is an amalgamation of stories: it is a story of estrangement, a story of ghosts, a story of secrets. At its core, however, it is the story of a mother and son, and an exploration of the insufficiencies of their love for one another. 

Mulgrew plays BEIV, a renowned artist who’s abandoned her suburban Dublin home for a secluded cottage on an island off the coast of West Cork, Ireland. Her son, COLM, comes to visit with his new wife, in search of answers regarding the mysterious death of his father.   

Harris and Mulgrew discuss the discernment of a theatre audience, the timelessness of modern Ireland, and the moral implications of deception – among other things – in this exclusive interview with Irish Rep. 

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How is this production of The Beacon different from its premiere at the Gate Theatre? Has any part of the production at Irish Rep surprised you? 

Nancy: Irish Rep’s production is very different from the Gate’s. At the Gate, the painting took a very dominant role in the set, but at Irish Rep, the sea takes its place. It functions essentially as an extra character. In Ireland, one is aware of the sea already, so in New York, this emphasis is particularly important. The sea is part of BEIV’s unconscious, part of COLM’s shadowed side. 

What do you think is different about storytelling when done on stage versus screen? How does your approach to acting vary, depending on the medium? 

Kate: I’ve been acting for 50 years. My great love, in the beginning, was unquestionably theatre. As time has gone on, I’ve done more TV acting, which is arguably easier to do than stage acting. You never know what’s going to happen, from the guy in the front row falling asleep, to the woman in the back who’s in tears, to your scene partner trying a completely new take on a line. There’s no safety net in the theatre. I love that feeling – it forces you to face yourself.  And if you back away from authenticity on the stage, you can get in real trouble. Audiences are quite discerning. They’re there to see a story well and truly told, and my job is to present the truth. 

Are there methods/practices you employ to get into the mind of a given character? What are they, and how do they help? 

Nancy: The act of writing is the act of inhabiting a character. I don’t start to write until a character is in me, in a real way. I had been thinking about The Beacon for four years before I started writing it. I let the story marinate for as long as I could. And then, one day, I just had to get something down. I wrote it quicker than I’ve written anything else – I got it done in about two months. 

Kate: To get in the mind of a character, I stay in the book as much as possible. I’m always with the script, wherever I am. I apply myself to it several times a day, read through it at least once. I think that’s where I get the real pleasure: working the script out, almost surgically. And in this case, the words of the script are pretty superb. There’s a pulse to the Irish vernacular that other languages don’t have: it’s rhythmic, musical, tough, gritty, witty. If you miss that music, you could really miss the meaning of an entire scene.

Do you feel your understanding of BEIV is still evolving? Has Kate contributed to this evolution at all? 

Nancy: I think a role evolves with every production. Kate’s evolved the role because she’s brought her own interpretation to it. Kate is very courageous as an actor. She’s not afraid to go to dark places; she doesn’t have an interest in being likable or pleasing. In that way, she’s opened BEIV up for me. One of the things she’s illuminated for me is her relationship with her ex-husband: she loved him deeply as a friend, even though she couldn’t stay married to him. Kate brings the past onto the stage in a living, breathing way. She’s extraordinary. 

Your knowledge of Irish culture and custom has obviously informed the way you play BEIV. Has anything about The Beacon informed or altered the way you think of the Irish people? 

Kate: The Beacon hasn’t altered my perception of Ireland, but it’s deepened it. The Irish people are a very complex, rich, sometimes mysterious, race of people. I’m Irish American – my parents and grandparents are all Irish. There was an Irish sensibility alive in my household growing up, and we often visited Ireland together. Ireland was alive in our family’s humor, the banter, the teasing, the sorrow, the craic. Ireland speaks to me on very primitive and important levels – it speaks to my significance in the world.

We talk a lot about contemporary Irish theatre in reference to the creation of The Beacon – what does a “contemporary Ireland” look like to you? How is that reflected in this script? 

Nancy: Contemporary Ireland is full of sexual politics; there’s fall out from the economic crash and the housing crisis. It’s a very young, forward thinking country, with a rich and deep history that informs everything. The world has gotten smaller, in a lot of ways – there’s not such a huge gulf between contemporary Dublin and contemporary New York City. The islands, however, are still very different. The people are wilder, more sexually experienced. City folk can be quite arrogant; island folk are untamed. 

Kate: BEIV reflects a contemporary Ireland in her misanthropic, tough independence. As for Ireland, itself, I’m not sure much changes, in a cultural sense. I’m not sure that it should. I can still find myself, today, sitting at a pub with a 9 year old and an 80 year old on either side of me. 

You strike a delicate balance between murder mystery and family reunion – drama and comedy – throughout this play. Is there a method by which you decide which tone takes precedence, when? 

Nancy: I’m irreverent when it comes to genre – I don’t believe in it. Audiences are smart, and they like to be told a story. This story is one of a mother and son with a very deep, fractured relationship; the mystery of the play is what follows.  Those of us who grow up in “ordinary” families don’t often question themselves, but COLM has always sensed that some part of him is missing. The mystery of the story, then, lies in COLM trying to recover himself. BEIV, on the other hand, is the opposite of a mystery to herself – she knows exactly who she is. In The Beacon, we see the collision of one person who knows herself exactly with another person who’s missing a piece of themself. 

Is there a place for secrecy in a family, or do you think every mystery should be solved? 

Kate: I think secrets are very dangerous. Families that live in a culture of secrecy are not necessarily loving. But that’s not what’s happening here – lying in The Beacon is strictly unavoidable, and the price for telling the truth is inestimable. This play explores the things love needs to conceal before it reveals the truth. This is a Greek tragedy we’re looking at. 

Nancy: I think we’re all mysteries to ourselves. The scary thing about getting older is realizing how little you know about everything, including yourself. But the greatest mystery of life, of course, is death. As we live, we try to reconcile the mysteries of ourselves, but also, we must live with this huge, unsolvable mystery hanging over our heads. This has to be reflected in drama: if you solve every question, you’re being untrue to the human experience. Not all questions in a show can be answered. I want the audience to go home with their own version of the story. 

The Beacon has been extended on Irish Rep’s Mainstage through November 24, 2024. Get your tickets today. 

By: Andi Grene   September 13, 2024

Colm McNally and Orla Long have been working behind the scenes on Nancy Harris’ THE BEACON, EXTENDED through November 24, 2024 at Irish Repertory Theatre. 

Colm is the set and lighting designer for the show. He’s currently director of Technical and Production at Z Space in San Francisco, and was trained at Trinity College Dublin and the Lir Academy. He’s an Irish Times Theatre Awards and Bay Area Theatre Awards nominee. 

Orla designs costumes for THE BEACON. She holds an MFA in Design from Tisch NYU and a BA in Drama & French Studies from Trinity College Dublin. She was nominated for a Lucille Lortel award for Outstanding Costume Design for Irish Rep’s production of Endgame last year. 

Irish Rep sat down with Colm and Orla and asked them how the design elements of the show came to be. Check out their interviews below!

How did you each go about visualizing the play? Which scenes and pieces came to you first?
Colm: Nancy Harris says it at the very top of the script: it’s the window. That’s where you have to start. BEIV, played by Kate Mulgrew, is looking out at the sea; the whole play revolves around it. How can we maximize the window in the play, making it as big and impactful as possible? How far can you go with it? That was really my focus. My mission was to maximize its power.
Orla: It’s BEIV’s home. So costume design really started with her. She’s an artist. She’s all about practicality. Every day is a work day for her; she’s all about her work and her painting.

What are the particularities of the set of THE BEACON? What’s important on stage? What sets THE BEACON apart from other productions you’ve worked on?
Colm: THE BEACON is set in BEIV’s home. This means it must feel as real as possible. Scattered throughout the set are books she might read, bills from her phone and electricity providers. It’s a cottage that BEIV, herself, has renovated. She’s an artist with an eye; this means the set must be stylish, the perfect blend of vintage and contemporary.
This style of set is quite different from ones I usually work on. I tend not to lean toward naturalism, and find myself in the world of design gestures that are larger, more symbolic and allegorical. And, of course, Irish Rep’s theatre layout presents a unique set of challenges – the stage is asymmetrical, complete with a big ol’ pillar in the middle of it. The unusual geometry of the space made it necessary to use every inch of the stage.

What did the costume designing process look like during rehearsals? Who, and what, informed the articles of clothing seen on stage?
Orla: Costume is a communicative tool. The body of an actor is a vessel for the development of their character. This means a costume designer has the responsibility of making sure actors are comfortable, and are able to engage in open dialogues about their characters.

Which costumes are you most excited for audience members to see?
Orla: I hope they won’t notice the costumes at all! These costumes should just feel like a second skin. I feel this way about all of the shows I work on. Costumes shouldn’t be noticeable unless there’s a grand reveal or transition in the script which might align with a new piece of clothing. I’ve done my job when nobody’s talking about what I’ve done.

How do you strike a balance between their own creative visions and the director’s?
Colm: The most important thing in a play is the story itself. Everyone’s reading the same text, and THE BEACON is an exceptionally narrative play. If you go back to the text, disagreements are fairly easy to solve. There’s usually a right answer for art.

What advice might you have for aspiring designers?
Colm: Avoiding external pressures and centering yourself in your own artistic journey. Do what works for you, and try to do a lot of different stuff.
Orla: Being a designer is a privilege. Ask yourself if you really like the work you’re doing, and then hone your craft.
Colm: And take inspiration from the other projects you work on, even if they’re not your style.
Orla: So it’s really just, steal everything.
Colm: Oh, steal everything. Nothing is new, everything is theft!

The idea for The Beacon began with two things – a place and an image. The place was West Cork and the image was of a glass house overlooking the wild Atlantic sea.

The play was originally commissioned by Druid, the renowned new writing company founded by Garry Hynes, and based in the west of Ireland. Working with a company whose history was so grounded in that part of the country got me thinking about my own west of Ireland roots. Though originally from Dublin, my family moved to West Cork for an extended period of time when I was a small child because my father, another writer, was immersed in historical research about the area during the famine.

The village, Baltimore, now a popular holiday destination,  was still mostly a working fishing village in those days. Though beautiful in summertime — when holiday-makers came from all over Europe and filled the pubs and coves, with many a summer romance ignited in June and extinguished by August — the winters there were not for the faint hearted. Grey skies surrounded by grey seas and long months of short daylight hours can take their toll on psyches used to the distractions of city life. My mother still talks of lonely winter afternoons in the empty village, pushing my buggy up and down the small pier, silent but for the ghostly clinking of boats tied to their moorings, their summer owners long gone.

Our time in West Cork was formative for many reasons. Lifelong friendships were forged with locals and indeed, some members of the family never left. As a result, it’s a place I have returned to again and again throughout my life, and I have always loved it — especially the islands, which are beautiful, remote, and somewhat mysterious. If one believes a West Cork winter to be arduous, living all year round on a stark island requires a tolerance for isolation not to mention an inner resilience most people don’t have — or want.

Despite this, a large number of visual artists seem to be drawn to the islands — whether for their beauty or lack of distraction — and this has always intrigued me. Being a writer, I am always struck by the confidence of painters and sculptors, visual artists of all kinds in fact, who present their work to the world and feel no compunction to explain it. Of course their work has meaning, but what you as a viewer experience when you look at it, what it provokes in your heart, your mind, your conscious — and unconscious — that’s yours. Art is an experience. Like theatre. And for some artists there is no line between their work and their life.

It seemed to me that there was potential in the collision of some of these ideas: an outsider in a place that is not her home, which is both remote and in its own way claustrophobic. And an artist whose life has always been her work to the point that she is now residing in a ‘glass box’ — literally making ‘an exhibition of herself’ — but perhaps for the very reason that she does not want to be revealed.

These paradoxical ideas led to other ideas and questions: if someone has such an intense and passionate relationship with their art, can the real-world relationships of flesh and blood ever measure up? And how does that affect those who love them? And can we ever really know the ‘truth’ of a thing — be it a person, a place, or a work of art? And if we could, would we want to?

Nancy Harris
August 2024

Kate Mulgrew plays BEIV, a renowned artist who has recently left her home in Dublin for West Cork, Ireland. Mulgrew was Emmy nominated for her performance as ‘Red’ Reznikov in “Orange is the New Black.” She also portrayed the first female captain of the Starship Voyager, as seen on “Star Trek: Voyager.”

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Zach Appelman plays COLM, BEIV’s estranged son. Appelman received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and has performed with a number of theatre companies, including Theatre for a New Audience, The Old Globe, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

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Sean Bell plays DONAL, a childhood friend of COLM’s. Bell recently made his Broadway debut as Robert “Bobby” Biberti in Harmony: A New Musical at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. He’s also appeared on “Succession” and “Boardwalk Empire” on HBO.

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David Mattar Merten plays RAY, a friend of BONNIE’s. Merten received their MFA in acting from Brown/Trinity Rep and made their Broadway debut this spring in An Enemy of the People.

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Ayana Workman plays BONNIE, COLM’s wife and long-time admirer of BEIV’s work. Workman was most recently seen in Rustin, opposite Colman Domingo, where she portrayed activist Eleanor Holmes. She’s performed around the world, including the National Theatre of Slovenia and London’s Globe Theatre.

Listen to Kate Mulgrew discuss The Beacon on PIX11.

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Kate Mulgrew talks with Ashley Bellman and Dahiana Pérez about the North American premiere of The Beacon and more.

Posted initially via The New York Times

Holding tightly to the Dublin accent of her character, the actress talks about starring in Nancy Harris’s feminist thriller at Irish Rep.

By Laura Collins-Hughes

Sept.21, 2024