Mint Theater Company's American Premiere of THE MOUNTAINS LOOK DIFFERENT Begins at Theatre Row

Mint Theater (Jonathan Bank, Producing Artistic Director) will present the American Premiere of The Mountains Look Different by Micheál Mac Liammóir. Performances will begin tonight, Thursday May 30th and continue through July 14th only at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Opening Night is set for June 20th.


After a dozen hard years working the streets of London, Bairbre is returning home to Ireland. Three days ago, she married Tom who knows nothing of her past. They plan to settle with Tom's father on his farm and live a simple life, far from the temptations and torments of the sinful city. But it's not easy to escape your past, even among the rocks and ruins of the mountainside.

The idea for The Mountains Look Different came to mac Liammóir after working on Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie. He wondered what happened to Anna after the curtain came down: "I saw many plays over the years whose subject matter was young women who sold their bodies in order to live, and the end of every one of the plays was that the unfortunate woman married some simple innocent man who fell in love with her. But the curtain always came down before any of us in the audience knew anything about the life that was ahead of the couple."

Mountains stoked controversy in conservative Dublin in 1948. One night, two men left their seats at intermission and asked the audience to join with them in leaving the theater. Shouts of "Sit down" and "If you don't like it leave" came from the audience; the ushers started towards the men, and the orchestra began to play and drowned out the protest. A handful of theatergoers left and the next day, every paper in Dublin told the story. The play continued without interruption and received an enthusiastic ovation, including calls for the author. Mac Liammóir himself played the role of Tom, so of course he heard the protest, but he said nothing. Later, he told the Irish Independent "that he believed the men who made the protest were sincere, but that it was a pity they had not waited to hear what the play had to say in the final act."

Aidan Redmond directs a cast that features Ciaran Byrne, Liam Forde, McKenna Harrington, Con Horgan, Cynthia Mace, Daniel Marconi, Brenda Meaney, Paul O'Brien, and Jesse Pennington.

Performances for The Mountains Look Different are Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30pm with matinees Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday at 2pm. No Wednesday evening performances except Wednesday June 19th at 7:30pm. No performance on June 21st. All performances take place at Theater Row (410 West 42nd Street between 9th and Dyer Avenues).

Tickets for The Mountains Look Different are $65.00 (including the $2.25 Theatre Row restoration fee) and can be purchased online at Telecharge.com, by phone at 212-239-6200 or in person at the Theatre Row Box Office.

Mint was awarded an OBIE for "combining the excitement of discovery with the richness of tradition" and a special Drama Desk Award for "unearthing, presenting and preserving forgotten plays of merit."

For more information, including photos and videos of Mint productions, visit minttheater.org.

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