Joe Dowling In-Conversation at Guthrie Nov.19

The Guthrie is please to announce that Director Joe Dowling will host an In Conversation event on Monday, November 19 at 7:30PM in the Dowling Studio. Addressing Irish history and the Irish identity, Dowling will also offer the audience insight into the historical perspective of Brian Friel's The Home Place, the drama currently enjoying its American premiere at the Guthrie under his direction.

Dowling, who has frequently directed Friel's plays in both Ireland and America, spends the evening discussing Irish history, offering a vivid picture of the society that frames The Home Place, and the gripping confrontations that occur as the characters face their burning personal dilemmas. Having first worked with Friel in 1977, during his tenure as Artistic Director of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, Dowling has directed other Friel works, including: Aristocrats, Living Quarters (Abbey Theatre, Dublin – world premieres), Dancing at Lughnasa (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Roundabout Theatre, New York; Guthrie Theater) and Molly Sweeney (Guthrie Theater).

"The highly anticipated premiere of The Home Place is set in the summer of 1878, a time of unrest and the early days of Ireland's 'Home Rule' movement, at The Lodge in Ballybeg, the Donegal home of the Gores, a planter family. This gorgeously written play tells the story of Christopher Gore, a well-meaning English landlord, and his son David. Their lives come undone when a cousin, Dr. Richard Gore, arrives in Donegal with the intention of pursuing a scientific inquiry. Inspired by Darwinism, and more particularly Sir Francis Galton's spin-off theories of human racial classification, Dr. Gore sets out to survey the anthropometry of the indigenous Irish. By measuring their craniums and other skeletal characteristics, he hopes to crack the genetic code of the indigenes, demonstrating their (presumably inferior) place in the natural order, and scientifically predicting their (potentially dangerous) behavior," explain press notes.

The Home Place runs through November 25 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. Tickets are priced from $24 to $69 and are on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE and online at www.guthrietheater.org.