O'Reilly to Direct American Premiere of Trevor Plays

Hailed by The New Yorker as "probably the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language," William Trevor is also a bestselling novelist and, in England and Ireland, well known draftsman of radio plays, many of which he himself has adapted from his fiction. On Monday, May 14, at 8:00 PM, the 92nd Street Y presents the American premiere of two of those plays: Going Home and Mr. McNamara based on short stories Trevor wrote in 1972 and 1976, respectively. The event is 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. Ciarán O'Reilly, the producing director of New York's Irish Repertory Theatre and the director of these productions, says Trevor's story-writing abilities translate well into radio plays. "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," O'Reilly says. "His dialogue flows so naturally that it's almost as if he can't stop himself.

"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," state press materials. 

William Trevor was born in 1928 in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in the Republic of Ireland. He is the author of several collections of short stories and has adapted a number of his own stories for television radio, and the stage,. These collections include The 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. The Story of Lucy Gault (2002) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. William Trevor's latest books are the short story collections: A Bit On the Side (2004); and The Dressmaker's Child (2005). Trevor lives in Devon, in South West England.  At 79, he will be publishing a new collection of short stories, called Cheating at Canasta (Viking; October 2007) this fall.

Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at www.92Y.org/poetry and 212.415.5500. For full cast information and bios, please call 212.415.5455.

Photo - William Trevor