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2019 Ciarán O’ Reilly On Thirty

12th,

June Years Of Making Art With

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EXAMINER The Irish Repertory Theatre

IRISH By Brad Balfour Q: With the gala coming up around a fireside for all those O’Connell Street, or Sackville mind blowing things because

or Irish Rep co-founder
CO: We’re a small off-
around Europe, but he never
ing to tell stories in a very ener-
about his neighbors and people
Ciarán O Reilly, establish- what are you looking forward? years. That led to people want- Street at the time, He wrote he spent a lot of time traveling
Fing the theater was diffi- Broadway theater company gized and imaginative way. within those few blocks and made it over. There’s some-
cult enough but sustaining it for and it’s a great honor to have a They took the language that that’s what they sounded and thing I always quote from Jim
these 30 years with his able former United States President, was imposed on them, the spoke like. Larkin, the great trade union
artistic partner Charlotte Bill Clinton, as our honoree and English language, and made it leader back around 1913 and
Moore has been even more of our own great notables coming their own. They used it in a col- Q: So when you chose the during the lockout in Dublin.
feat. Starting with Sean such as Alec Baldwin, Judy orful way. So between the cast did they have to figure out He said the struggles of the
O’Casey’s “The Plough and the Collins, and Brian Stokes dynamics of plot of telling the the accents or was there a little Irish people are the struggles of
Stars,” The Irish Repertory Mitchell. Then some of our story and the beautiful lan- leeway? the people all over the world.
Theatre opened its doors in wonderful company from over guage they use, you got an Irish CO: We’re blessed with hav- When we tell a story that
September 1988, with the mis- the years such as Melissa Errico, playwright. ing a lot of people from Dublin might be set in Ireland, it
sion to bring works by Irish and who has done so many shows, and around the area, so it was might reflect issues around the
Irish American masters and she’s a magical person, will be Q: it’s not only because they second nature to them. There world. It might be immigra-
contemporary playwrights to with us. Robert Mack, who did were stuck in the hearth and were some American actors tion if it’s of a social nature or
American audiences, provide a “The Dead” with us is perform- needed something to do; the who had to find their way in. It it could be internal family con-
context for understanding the ing. We’ve got Bill Whelan, the Irish people didn’t ask for the can be a challenge, I know this, flict.
contemporary Irish American composer of Riverdance and trouble that came from the I’m an actor myself. I know you You have people here who
experience, and to encourage he’s coming over to play his English so that might’ve helped don’t want to hear me do an are at our theater that aren’t
the development of new works Riverdance tune for us. provide with great fodder. American accent, I sound like necessarily Irish or Irish
focusing on the Irish and Irish CO:: They did not, but it’s John Wayne or something, it’s American. Half of our audience
American experience, as well as Q: You’ve gotten this far. what happened. I’m not saying pretty bad even when I make are just regular New York the-
a range of other cultures. What’s next in the world of the peasant in France was my best efforts. So I have a ater goers from all sorts of eth-
In 1995, they made a perma- Irish theater for you two. drinking champagne and put- huge amount of sympathy and nic backgrounds. We love it
nent home in Chelsea in a for- CO: Though we feel ting on airs, but somewhere a huge amount of admiration when they come and see an
mer warehouse, where its three blessed with the audience we between perhaps things have for American actors who take O’Casey play like “Juno and the
completely renovated floors have, I certainly think we have happened… The weather this on. Paycock” and in the family con-
allowing for both a Main Stage a long, long way to go [in what affects what the Irish are like. flict they see themselves on
theater and a smaller studio we can offer]. Thirty years Even the landscape informs Q: Who sound funnier, Irish that stage. It brings people
space, the W. Scott McLucas does not begin to cover the what people are like. In the flat people trying to do an together when they see these
Studio. The Irish Repertory world of Irish theater, it’s just a midlands of Ireland you have American accent or Americans issues that we all face within a
Theatre is currently the only start, a curtain raiser for what people that speak in a flat trying to do an Irish accent? family. There’s a daughter who
year-round theater company in can be done. We’re a nation of accent. Then when you go up CO: I think Irish people gets pregnant out of wedlock
New York devoted to bringing playwrights that have pro- to Donegal, people are up in doing an American accent is and though these days it’s not a
Irish and Irish American works duced such a wealth of work the head in the hilly Donegal or pretty funny. Again, what is an curse, it was that then. There’s
to the stage. The Rep has been that if we were to go back to down below in Kerry. American accent? Is it from The alcohol abuse, substance abuse,
recognized with a 2007 back with the plays over the Wherever they are, that’s Bronx? Brooklyn? Is it from the there’s all these things anyone
Jujamcyn Award, a special years, I don’t think we’d finish where the magic comes from. Midwest, is it a Southern drawl? can relate to.
Drama Desk Award for it in a hundred years, the I know from experience that
“Excellence in Presenting amount of theater that we Q: Does that mitigates who Irish and English people have Q: From the specific you get
Distinguished Irish drama,” and have to expose to the good cit- you pick as actors; it is depend- an easier time doing a Southern the general.
the Lucille Lortel Award for izens of New York. ing on the accents? Just kidding American accent for whatever CO: The three plays we’re
“Outstanding Body of Work.” but does that add to the play — reason. They tend towards that referring to are “The Plough
In 2014, The Irish Repertory Q: Why do you think having the right accent? whenever they do an American and the Stars,” “Shadow of a
Theatre started a renovation of Ireland is a nation of play- CO: It totally adds to the accent. Gunman,” and “Juno and the
their home in Chelsea which wrights? play because there’s a musicali- Paycock.” They’re set in differ-
was finally completed and in CO: It may be a cliche to say ty to the writing and if you have Q: You did some plays about ent times but they’re still quite
2017, it received an Obie Grant it but we’re a nation of story- somebody who has that music Irish Americans and ones set close together. One is 1916, the
from the Obie Awards present- tellers. It goes back to the DNA in their bones and in their outside of Ireland, but with other is 1920,and the other is
ed by the American Theatre of sitting around the hearth mouth, then that particular some Irish themes. When did 1922 and those are very key
Wing and The Village Voice. Its and being entertained by some- piece of music, which could be you decide your work can times in Irish history. 1916 is
productions draw more than one telling a hearth story a play by Seán O’Casey, that include that as well? obviously the rebellion where
35,000 audience members because there was very little person has that within them for CO: You say Irish and Irish they first got their independ-
annually and are ever-increas- else to do. You’re sitting there, it to flow out without effort. So American, but that can have a ence, then there’s the civil war,
ing with most recent shows you probably didn’t have it’s a huge deal to be able to very broad range. Like Eugene then the Irish war of independ-
nearly sold out through their enough money for candles to actually know the accent and O’Neill is an Irish-American ence. In those three different
runs. read by but you have your know the regional accents. playwright but his stories are times there were explosions
Given this three-decade mouth and imagination so you Seán O’Casey didn’t just write set here in the United States. and implosions and then they
anniversary in mind, the June sat around telling enough sto- about Dublin, he wrote about He was never in Ireland in his were all trying to find their way
gala has quite a line up. ries that kept people enthralled the little section that’s north of lifetime, which was one of the out of it.