Solas Nua Premieres Film In New York City's 1st Irish Festival

Solas Nua's In the Middle of the Fields by Deirdre Kinahan, will make its on-screen debut in New York City's 1st Irish Theatre Festival. The play was originally staged outdoors this past summer at P St Beach, receiving critical acclaim. The film is directed by Laley Lippard, who also directed the theatre production earlier this year, with Emmy Award winner Doug Wilder as director of photography.

The 14th annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival opens on Sunday, running from January 9 to 31. A new hybrid of digital and in-person formats, 1st Irish 2022 hosts 20 live and virtual events, including a notable digital premiere - The Irish Rep's NY Times Critics' Pick production of "A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing," which closed in December, and, from Solas Nua in Washington DC, the digital premiere of "In the Middle of the Fields."

Among the digital offerings: Dublin's Fishamble: The New Play Company opens the Festival with a limited online run from Jan 9 to 16 of its highly acclaimed "Duck Duck Goose" by Caitríona Daly. Directed by Jim Culleton, the play about the unfolding story of a rape allegation through the eyes of a friend of the accused, marks Fishamble's 8th visit to the Festival. The other Irish online entries include The Everyman in Cork ("City," John McCarthy's virtuosic solo work that articulates a unique language of buildings, in a story of a city told from the inside); About Face in Dublin ("Transatlantic Tales 2" featuring of a who's who cast from Ireland and New York in which eight distinct Irish-American stories are captured on Zoom); The Wexford Arts Centre ("One Voice Festival: Tales from the Quay," eight short plays about Wexford's love affair with its storied quay).

Additional information and tickets to 1st Irish are available at https://www.origintheatre.org/1st-irish-festival