INTERVIEW: Welcome to ‘Irishtown,’ a play about what it means to be Irish
Photo: Irishtown continues through May 25 at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Irish Rep / Provided by official site.
Irishtown, the new play by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth and directed by Nicola Murphy Dubey, is currently enjoying an off-Broadway run at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan. The show follows a troupe of actors called the Irishtown Players who are gearing up for a Broadway transfer of an Irish playwright’s new work, but the cast begins to have reservations about the “Irish” quality of the show. The actors ask whether the play is “Irish” enough.
Brenda Meaney stars in the production, alongside Kate Burton, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Kevin Oliver Lynch and Angela Reed, with voiceover work by Roger Clark, according to the Irish Rep’s official website. Performances continue through May 25.
“Ciara’s writing is so funny and just bubbles off the page at you, but also she’s so smart and incisive,” Meaney said in a recent phone interview. “There’s a critique going on of the commercialization of Ireland, and there’s a wonderful feminist critique happening. Also, it’s just so funny, so it’s all couched in wonderful humor that is unique. It bubbled off the page at me, and I wanted to be a part of it.”
This is the first time that Meaney has ever performed in a piece that turns a mirror on the theater industry itself. In many ways, Irishtown is meta-theater, with the assembled actors playing assembled actors trying to understand the importance and obligation of the acting trade.
“It’s not something I’ve ever done before,” Meaney said. “You sort of feel like, maybe it’s a little bit too inside baseball for folks who aren’t in the profession, but I think actually people are interested in how things get made. And I think there’s a relatability in terms of the human variable that you add to any group endeavor, whether it’s theater-making or anything else. There’s that crazy mix of humans that come together, and you have to work together to make something happen. And it may or may not come to fruition.”
In this piece, Meaney relies on the talents of her fellow ensemble members, and she certainly has some excellent scene partners. Burton, in particular, is a theater legend, and Jackson is known for her breakout role in Derry Girls.
“It’s such a pleasure,” she said. “Because the stakes are so high for these characters, we really need as actors to look in each other’s eyes and know the other person is there to catch us. We’ve had moments where things have gone awry, and you just roll with it. You throw the ball back and forth, and keep going. Kate has so much experience and is so generous to work with. You catch her eye on stage, and you’re like, oh, I’m safe. This is cool. And Saoirse is just a joy. She’s full of all kinds of wonderful kooky, fantastic ideas all the time, and Kevin is such a joy to work with. He’s a really grounded and kind presence in the room. I can’t say enough good things about everybody. Everybody is bringing their A game.”
Meaney has a unique history with the Irish Rep. She appeared on the company’s stage once before, in a 2019 production of Little Gem, but she was first introduced to the Irish-centered theater because of her grandfather. And that’s how she met the co-founders Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly.
“My grandfather did a couple of things at the Irish Rep,” she said. “He was an actor as well, a producer, a director, so he had worked with Charlotte and Ciarán many, many, many moons ago. So I was always aware of the Irish Rep. It was on my bucket list of places I’d love to work, and I got to work there in 2019. And so I came into Nicola’s orbit through that process through working on a play called Little Gem. She didn’t direct it, but she was there advocating for younger playwrights and new works and the great work that she’s done at the Rep, which is to bring in new Irish voices to the theater because while we love [Brian] Friel and all the greats, it’s also an amazing platform for younger Irish writers. So she’s been doing really valiant work in that regard, so that’s how I got to know Nicola. And I’ve done a number of readings with her, and then for this particular project, it was just the classic audition. It was very old school in the sense that I actually went into the room and auditioned in person, so it wasn’t a tape or anything.”
The play is definitely a comedy, but that doesn’t mean Irishtown doesn’t explore some serious issues. Identity with one’s culture and country is an important topic to unpack, and the actors have had engaging conversations on the story being told.
“We had some wonderful rehearsal conversations,” Meaney said. “I’m an Irish American basically. My parents are both from Dublin, and I’m first generation. And I had to navigate what that meant for me, so I think getting to work on this play has been very satisfying because it does grapple with all of those questions of what does it mean to be Irish, what does it mean to commodify that Irishness, and is it even true anymore because contemporary Ireland has moved on so far from what America remembers Ireland as. Because of this diaspora, there’s this nostalgia for an Ireland that never really existed, but only existed in people’s imagination. Contemporary Ireland is very different from that, so there’s this juxtaposition or dissonance that happens between contemporary Ireland and this American nostalgia for the Ireland of yore. This play really grapples with this question on a humorous level and on a much more profound level, so I found that very satisfying to grapple within myself, too.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Irishtown, starring Brenda Meaney, continues at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City through May 25. Click here for more information and tickets.
