On Monday, May 14, at 8:00 PM, the 92nd Street Y is presenting the American premiere of two William Trevor plays, Going Home and Mr. McNamara. Based on short stories he wrote in the 1970s, the staged readings are part of the 2006/07 season of literary programs presented by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center.
William Trevor's stories, most of which are set in Ireland and England, range from black comedies populated by eccentrics and outcasts to tales of Irish history and politics. In the press release, Ciarán O'Reilly, the producing director of New York's Irish Repertory Theatre and the director of these productions, comments, "William Trevor is first and foremost a short-story writer, but the writing style and characterizations he employs in these plays show his ability to change seamlessly from medium to medium. His dialogue flows so naturally that it's almost as if he can't stop himself."
The cast of
Going Home and
Mr. McNamara includes Colin Lane,
Paul Hecht, James Stevens, Terry Donnelly and
J. Smith Cameron.
Press notes continue, "
Going Home (1972) explores a tension-fraught train ride shared by an unruly prep school student and the school's assistant headmistress. The headmistress, Miss Fanshawe, is pushed to her limits by the student, Carruthers, who acts out because of problems at home. In the end, though, it is Carruthers who learns the limits of anger and frustration.
Mr. McNamara (1976), originally conceived as a short story, is the tale of a boy named Michael who attempts to learn more about his father after his death. The dark family secret Michael uncovers turns his life upside down and forces him to re-examine everything he has known in a new light."
William Trevor, who was born in 1928 in the Republic of Ireland, has adapted a number of his own stories for television radio, and the stage, including
Day We Got Drunk on Cake and Other Stories (1967),
The Ballroom of Romance and Other Stories (1972),
Angels at the Ritz and Other Stories (1975) and
Beyond the Pale (1981). His early novels include
The Old Boys (1964), winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and
Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel (1969).
The Children of Dynmouth (1976) and
Fools of Fortune (1983) both won the Whitbread Novel Award, and
Felicia's Journey (1994) won both the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Sunday Express Book of the Year awards.
The Hill Bachelors (2000), a collection of short stories, won both the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Short Stories and the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction in 2001. At 79, Trevor will be publishing a new collection of short stories, called
Cheating at Canasta (Viking; October 2007) this fall.
Tickets are $18, and are available at
www.92Y.org/poetry or by calling 212.415.5500.
