SHINING CITY, Starring Matthew Broderick, Starts Tonight at Irish Rep

A friendly reminder! Previews begin tonight for Irish Repertory Theatre's production of Conor McPherson's acclaimed play Shining City, starring two-time Tony Award-winner Matthew Broderick.

Directed by Ciarán O'Reilly, Shining City also features Billy Carter (The Weir, Port Authority), Lisa Dwan (the acclaimed Beckett Trilogy), and James Russell (Port Authority, Juno and the Paycock).

SHINING CITY will inaugurate Irish Rep's newly renovated theater, located at 132 West 22nd Street. Opening night is set for Thursday, June 9, 2016, playing a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, July 3rd. Tickets are on sale now through Irish Rep's box office at 212-727-2737 or online at www.irishrep.org.

SHINING CITY is a haunting play, dense with urban lives that brush against one another while never making contact. John (Matthew Broderick) is seeking help from Ian, a counselor (Billy Carter), after the unexpected death of his wife. Though shaken by the loss, John is troubled by more than just grief; he has begun to see his wife's ghost in their home.

SHINING CITY had its world premiere in London's West End at the Royal Court Theatre in June 2004. It had its US premiere at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre, where it opened on May 9, 2006. The play was nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Play. This production marks the first New York City revival since the Broadway production ten years ago.

SHINING CITY features scenic design by Charlie Corcoran (Port Authority at Irish Rep), costume design by Martha Hally (Shining City at Irish Rep), lighting design by Michael Gottlieb (Broadway's Lysistrata Jones), and original music by Ryan Rumery (Between Riverside and Crazy).

SHINING CITY was selected to marks Irish Rep's homecoming because, at its core, it is a tale of urban-dwellers each longing to create a place to call home. The only full-time producer of Irish theater in the U.S., Irish Repertory Theatre returns to its home base in Chelsea, located in the Stanwick Building at 132 West 22nd Street, after an extensive 18-month renovation. The spatial quality and acoustics of the theater will be dramatically improved, to reinforce the high caliber of Irish Rep's programming, while maintaining the intimate experience that is its signature. The schedule of opening events and the theatre's full inaugural season will be announced this summer.

A grand re-opening of Irish Repertory Theatre is planned for September 2016, when the theater will be fully programmed on both the main stage and the W. Scott McLucas Studio Theater on the lower level.

MATTHEW BRODERICK (John). Irish Rep debut. Matthew made his stage debut at 17 in Horton Foote's On Valentine's Day opposite his father, James Broderick. Off-Broadway: Torch Song Trilogy (OCC, Villager Award), The Widow Claire and The Starry Messenger by Kenneth Lonergan. Broadway: Brighton Beach Memoirs (Tony, OCC, Theatre World awards), Biloxi Blues, How to Succeed in Business... (Tony, DD, OCC awards), It's Only a Play, Night Must Fall, Taller Than a Dwarf, The Producers (Tony, DD, OCC nominations), Roundabout's The Foreigner, The Philanthropist, and Nice Work If You Can Get It, Sylvia. TV: "The Music Man" on ABC and "'Master Harold'... And the Boys" on Showtime. Films include Max Dugan Returns, WarGames, 1918, On Valentine's Day, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Project X, Lady-Hawke, Biloxi Blues, Glory, Family Business, The Freshman, The Lion King, Infinity (directed by Mr. Broderick), The Cable Guy, Addicted to Love, Inspector Gadget, Election, You Can Count on Me, The Last Shot, Marie and Bruce, Strangers With Candy, Wonderful World, the film adaptation of The Producers, Bee Movie, Then She Found Me, Finding Amanda, Tower Heist, Margaret, The American Side and Neil LaBute's Dirty Weekend. He will soon be seen in the Untitled Warren Beatty Project and Look Away.

BILLY CARTER (Ian). Irish Rep: Port Authority, The Weir. Broadway: A Moon for the Misbegotten with Kevin Spacey. Off-Broadway: 39 Steps (Union Square Theatre), All That Fall with Michael Gambon (59E59). London / West End: I Can't Sing! (London Palladium); Translations, The Revengers Tragedy (National Theatre); Bruises (Royal Court); Birdsong (Harold Pinter Theatre); Macbeth (Queens); Eastward Hoe!, The Malcontent, The Island Princess, The Roman Actor (Gielgud Theatre/RSC). Two season seasons with the RSC.

LISA DWAN (Neasa). Irish Rep debut. Lisa is a producer, performer, and director originally from Ireland. Having originally trained in the UK as a ballet dancer, including dancing with Rudolf Nureyev in Coppelia in Dublin, she began acting professionally in her teens. She has worked extensively in theatre, film, and television, both internationally and in her native Ireland. Most recently she has workshopped her own sell out adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Text for Nothing at the Lincoln Centre in New York last fall. She has also toured all over the world to great audience and critical acclaim in the "Beckett Trilogy" of Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby. She has been hailed as "a Beckett prodigy" (New York Times), with Ben Brantley noting that "Ms. Dwan... is an instrument of Beckett, in the way saints and martyrs are said to be instruments of God." She was coached by Billie Whitelaw and has collaborated with Walter Asmus since 2012. Originating at the Royal Court Theatre in London, the Beckett Trilogy's engagements include the Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, West End, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Perth Festival, Berlin, Boston, Paris, Hong Kong, and Toronto, Los Angeles and a recent return to New York. Film credits include An Afterthought directed by Matteo Bernardini, Oliver Twist, John Boorman's Tailor of Panama, and Bhopal-A Prayer for Rain. In 2012, she adapted, produced, and performed the critically acclaimed one-woman play Beside the Sea at the South Bank Centre and on tour, and starred in Goran Bregovic's new music drama, Margot, Diary of an Unhappy Queen at the Barbican. Recent theatre credits also include The Journey Between Us - Southwark Playhouse, Ramin Gray's production of Illusions by Ivan Viripaev at the Bush Theatre, Dear Bessie: Letters Live with Benedict Cumberbatch (Hay Festival and West End). In Sept 2016 she will present a world premier of a new Samuel Beckett one-woman production at the Old Vic Theatre London.

JAMES RUSSELL (Laurence). Irish Rep: Port Authority, Juno and the Paycock, The Freedom of the City. Other NY credits: Hamlet (Tim Carroll's The Factory), Major Barbara (Shaw Project). International: The Flood (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Cymbeline (Shakespeare's Globe, London). Regional: Shakespeare Theatre of NJ credits: The Playboy of the Western World, The Liar, A Midsummer Nights Dream TV: Unforgettable, Forever, Deception, Infamous, Blue Bloods Film: James recently starred alongside Jim Norton and Lauren Cohen in STX and Lakeshore Entertainment's horror film The Boy.

CONOR MCPHERSON (Playwright) was born in Dublin in 1971. He attended thee University College in Dublin where he began to write and direct. His plays include The Night Alive, The Veil, Rum & Vodka, The Good Thief, This Lime Tree Bower, St. Nicholas, The Weir (Olivier Award, Best Play), Dublin Carol, Port Authority, Shining City (Tony Award nomination, Best Play), and The Seafarer. Film work includes I Went Down, Saltwater, Samuel Beckett's Endgame, and The Actors. Other awards include the George Devine Award, Critics' Circle Award, Evening Standard Award, Meyer Whitworth Award, Stewart Parker Award, two Irish Film & Television Academy Best Screenplay Awards, CICAE Best Film Award, Berlin Film Festival, Best Film and Best Screenplay Awards at the San Sebastian Film Festival

CIARÁN O'REILLY (Director) has helmed Irish Rep's productions of The Weir (Lucille Lortel and Callaway Award nominations); The Emperor Jones (Callaway Award; O'Neill Credo Award; Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel Award nominations); The Hairy Ape (Drama Desk, Drama League and Callaway nominations); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Drama Desk nomination); the world pre­miere of Banished Children of Eve; as well as the recent productions of Sea Marks, Port Authority, and The Quare Land, among others. As an actor, he has been seen in the Irish Rep productions of Da, Juno and the Paycock, Dancing at Lughnasa, Molly Sweeney, Aristocrats, A Whistle in the Dark, The Shaughraun, and The Irish and How They Got That Way. He also appeared in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of A Touch of the Poet with Gabriel Byrne; at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; and made his Broadway debut in The Corn is Green. He has been honored three times by Irish America Magazine with the Irish America "Top 100 Irish" Award.

IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE, co-founded by Producing Director Ciarán O'Reilly and Artistic Director Charlotte Moore, opened its doors in September 1988 with Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. The Irish Rep is currently the only year-round theatre company in New York City devoted to bringing Irish and Irish American works to the stage. Recognized with the Jujamcyn Theatres Award, a special Drama Desk Award for "Excellence in Presenting Distinguished Irish Drama," an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Lucille Lortel Award for "Outstanding Body of Work," the Irish Rep has celebrated the very best in Irish theatre for over twenty-five years, from the masters to the new generation of Irish and Irish American writers who are transforming the stage. Nearly 38,000 audience members annually attend productions at our theatre located in the heart of New York's Off Broadway community. Once here, they witness the Irish Rep's engaging perspective on the Irish and their unique contributions to the world of drama.