15 New Plays to be Presented at 16th Annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival

The 16th annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival will take place this year from March 23 to April 28 in New York.  The month-long Origin 1st Irish 2024 kicks off with a staged reading of the journalist, rock star and Broadway musical scribe Larry Kirwan’s “The Informer,” an adaptation of Liam O’Flaherty’s classic Irish Civil War story.  The reading at the American Irish Historical Society, 991 Fifth Avenue (at 80th Street) on Sat Mar 23 at (7pm), is part of the “Readings of Revolution” reading series, exploring ruptures and important turning points in Irish history, and is one of several events at the Society this year. 

The mix of shows in competition includes three from Ireland, with a variety of shows produced by local Irish diaspora theater creators and companies, some of which have been nurtured from their inception by Origin Theater Company.

Festival mainstay, Dublin’s Fishamble: The New Play Company is coming back to 59E59 Theaters with their 10th Festival production, “King,” written by and starring Pat Kinevane, which runs Mar 26 to Apr 14. (In competition.) (We last saw Kinevane in his loudly successful “Silent” back in 2012, also produced by Fishamble.)
Plays nurtured by Origin include a new staging of John Kearns “Boann and the The Well of Wisdom” (first seen in 2022) at The Greek Cultural Center Fri to Sun April 26 to 28; last year’s one-night sensation, Tim McGillicuddy’s “Herself,” which The Drilling Company brings back for a run at The Gural Theater Mar 29 to Apr 20; and Prodigals’ front-man Eamon O’Tuama’s rock musical “Peace and Love in Brooklyn,” which was seen in a sold-out concert staging at the Irish Arts Center last year.  This year Origin Theater Company presents a restaging, also directed by John Keating, running five nights at the cell April 3 to 7. (These three are in competition.)

Among the locally produced shows in competition will be Sean Gormley’s “The Double Bass,” directed by Labhaoise Magee, running Apr 12 to 28 at the cell. Playing in rep with “The Double Bass” at the cell will be a comedy-drama “Last Call for Babe Reilly,” by Marianne Driscoll and directed by Kira Simring.  (The duo’s last Festival collaboration, the ripping “McGoldrick’s Thread,” won for best direction and best production in 2013.)

Two plays will be staged in the hills of The Bronx at An Beal Bocht. This theater hotbed -- loved by Festival audiences for going out of its way to entertain in a fun, tiny space – will offer us “Dry Rot,” by the company’s leader Don Creedon (one night Apr 15 and out of competition), and a burning hot new comedy, “Running with Coffee,” by Eileen Byrne, seen on Apr 27 and 28. (In competition.)

Of course the NY Irish Center in Long Island City returns to the Festival, this time with the New York premiere of “Bumbled,” a new play by Bernard McMullan & Colin Hamell, and starring Colin Hamell, which tells the story of a loveable (and busy) bee named Pascal. (Apr 3 and 4) and then buzzing to An Beal Bocht (Apr 6 and 7) . (In competition.)

This year’s festival offering from the Irish Repertory Theatre Company is Brian Friel’s “Philadelphia Here I Come,” part of their Friel Project, which started in October and runs through May 5.  This bittersweet comedy about a young man’s pending relocation from small-town Ballybeg to America, to live with his aunt, runs from Mar 16 to May 5. (In competition.)

Two notable cross-Atlantic returns include David Gilna and Zoe Seaton.  Seaton, whose New York debut last year was the ribald comedic tour de force “Frankenstein’s Monster is Drunk and the Sheep Have All Jumped the Fences,” brings us “Storytime Café,” which will inhabit the bar Ryan’s Daughter on the Upper East Side Apr 16 to 19 + Apr 21. (In competition.) Her company, Big Telly, out of Portstewart in Northern Ireland, nabbed the Innovation Theatre Award for the US premiere “Frankenstein’s Monster.”

A reading of Gilna’s new play, “Nancy and Michael,” will be directed by Andy O’Reilly as part of the “Readings of Revolution” series at the American Irish Historical Society, on Mar 30.  It’s about the love affair of Nancy Brown and Michael O’Rahilly, the co-founder of the Irish Volunteers, forerunner of the IRA), who died in battle during the Easter Rising. His one-man true tale of being electrocuted in Boston, “A Bolt from D’ Blue,” electrified the 2022 Festival.

Special talks will be led by Conal Creedon at the Glucksman Ireland House (TBA), and one led by Mark Holan who has studied how Ireland’s War of Independence (1919 to 21) was covered and portrayed by contemporary American journalists – both for Irish and non-Irish readers.  This talk -- at the American Irish Historical Society on Tue Apr 9 at 7pm -- will also touch on the impact of a handful of pioneering women journalists and several reporters with larger literary ambitions who were part of the sizeable US press corps in Ireland.

“We’re going back to our roots in a sense,” says Michael “Mick” Mellamphy, Origin’s artistic director about the company’s renewed focus on the Irish story in a global context.  “We’ve always been known a predominantly Irish company, so it’s really our calling.”

He continues: “There are about three dozen Irish playwrights in our New York circle, which includes writers who live in Ireland and who like to come here to develop new work.  We are especially proud of this incubating role, which we take seriously given all the challenges theaters and theater artists face today.”

The 16th annual Origin 1st Irish Theater Festival running Mar 23 to April 28 presents a mix of new shows, readings and talks produced locally, and acclaimed work from Ireland, in venues across the city.  15 plays will be seen, 10 of which are in competition.

Participating theatres and cultural organizations include the American Irish Historical Society, 59E59 Theaters, the Irish Repertory Theatre, the Irish Arts Center, The Gural Theater, the Greek Cultural Center and the cell, Manhattan; the NY Irish Center in Queens, and An Beal Bocht in The Bronx. Tickets for the Festival are on sale at www.origingtheatre.org.

This year’s Origin 1st Irish Pub Partners – a consortium of 16 of New York’s most beloved and unique Irish pubs -- welcome artists and festivalgoers with the warm-hearted hospitality of the Island. Taking part are Ryan’s Daughter, Pig n Whistle on 36th, Doc Watsons, The Grafton, Blooms Tavern, The Longacre Tavern, Smithfield Hall, The Raven, Dylan Murphys, Dolly Varden, Arlene's Grocery, The Scratcher, Crompton Ale House, O’Donohues, Avoca, and Good Times Brewing – NYC’s non-alcoholic brewing company.

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