INTERVIEW: Stories from Ireland’s Rotunda Hospital inspire new stage drama
Photo: Courtesy of Origin Theatre Company / Provided by press rep with permission.
Playwright Honor Molloy, who had a off-Broadway hit a number of years ago with Crackskull Row, is back in the Big Apple with a new play in development. Round Room is set to appear at the 12th-annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival, with performances running Jan. 27-28.
In the new show, Molloy envisions what it must have been like to be a woman in Dublin’s infamous Rotunda Hospital. The characters who come to life in her drama are pulled from 200 years of history, and the audience meets them in the corridors, the back staircases and the wards of the hospital, according to press notes.
The play comes to New York City courtesy of the Cuala Foundation and stars Labhaoise Magee, Brenda Meaney, Rachel Pickup, Maeve Prive, Zoe Watkins and Aoife Williamson. They are under the helm of director Britt Berke, with original songs by Grammy winner Susan McKeown.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Molloy, whose new show will play The Alchemical Studios on West 14th Street in Manhattan, not far from Crackskull Row’s run at the Irish Repertory Theatre a few years ago. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audiences expect from Round Room?
I call this iteration of Round Room an ‘open studio.’ Audiences are invited in to see where we are at this stage in the creative process. Previous showings helped to refine the play. This time around, we’re adding in music — from Grammy Award-winning singer / songwriter Susan McKeown — and movement. It’s a step from play (words on a page) to theater (voices and bodies moving through space).
Are the stories about Rotunda Hospital fictional or based on real accounts?
They all have a basis in fact, and I’ve done a great deal of research here and in Ireland to make sure of the authenticity of the stories I’m telling. That said, I employ dramatic license to shape and elaborate upon the material. Everything in the play is ‘true,’ but it may not be ‘real.’
What do you hope the play says about women, motherhood and health-care issues?
Irish women often hold the home and the nation together, but have rarely been rewarded for their ingenuity, perseverance and love. This isn’t an ‘issue’ play, though of course it contains a few. I think it says, at its deepest level, that Irish women endure because of their intelligence, their humor, their warmth.
Do you feel that some of these stories have been lost from the public record? Do you feel like you’re shining a spotlight on forgotten narratives?
Absolutely. These are stories that have been neglected or left out of previous accounts. Reclaiming women’s stories, voices and experiences throughout Irish history has long been an objective of mine. The play began many years ago as a way of capturing stories of the Rotunda told to me by the late Bronagh Murphy; her experience as a mid-wife is woven deeply into the piece, which wouldn’t have been written without her. I draw upon that early version of the play for Round Room.
Were you surprised by the success of 2016’s Crackskull Row?
It’s always a thrill when a play finds an audience, touches a chord. I’m glad Row found two homes — Origin’s 1st Irish Festival and then the Irish Rep. Was I surprised? Yes. As much as I believe in the strength of my work, it’s always a surprise when someone agrees with me!
When did you first fall in love with theater?
Probably in the womb. My mother is an American theater artist who went to Dublin in the ’50s to study [John Millington] Synge’s plays at Trinity College. My father was a charming Irish rogue of actor. The two made theater and children together. I grew up in a roaring chaos of actors, musicians and Dublin eccentrics of all sorts. My life was theater. How could I do anything else but love it?
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Round Room, written by Honor Molloy, plays Jan. 27-28 at The Alchemical Studios on West 14th Street in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets for the Origin’s 1st Irish Theatre Festival.
