The Theatre @ Home Winter Festival begins on Tuesday, January 26th and runs through March 7th.

Every show will be made available for four performances. These are the shows being offered (with a link built into each title so you can go directly to full details about the show and its performance schedule):

Molly Sweeney – January 26th, February 6th, 13th, 18th, 26th and March 2nd

Brian Friel’s play, first performed in 1994 in Dublin, tells the story of the title character who has been blind since birth. At the age of 41, she undergoes a procedure that allows her to see. Told in monologues by Molly, her husband, Frank and the surgeon, Mr. Rice, the play explores what, if anything, did Molly have to lose by undergoing the procedure.

Starring in Molly Sweeney are Geraldine Hughes, Paul O’Brien, and Ciarán O’Reilly. The production was directed by Charlotte Moore.

The show runs 2 hours 30 minutes including an intermission.

The performances take place on Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Saturday, February 6th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; Saturday, February 13th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Thursday, February 18th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; February 26th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and March 2nd at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST.

Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom – January 27th, February 2nd, 14th, 17th, 28th and March 3rd

Aedín Moloney stars is this one-woman show inspired by James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. 

Set in Ireland in 1904, Molly struggles to find meaning in her life after her children are gone, her marriage has lost its luster and the affair she was having ran its course. She doesn’t fully know what she wants, but she knows this isn’t it. With a true Irish sense of both doom and humor, Molly follows an untraditional path to rediscovering who she is.

Moloney, who won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance, adapted the novel with Colum McCann. YES! features music from Paddy Moloney, best known for his band The Chieftains.

The show runs 1 hour 30 minutes without an intermission.

The performances take place Wednesday, January 27, at 3pm EST/12:00 PM PST; Tuesday, February 2, at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Sunday, February 14th at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 PST and Wednesday, February 17th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; February 28th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST and March 3rd at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

The Weir – January 27th, February 6th, 10th, 19th, 28th and March 3rd

New York’s Irish Rep has had great success with Conor McPherson’s The Weir. Their 2013 production was nominated for Best Outstanding Revival at the Lucille Lortel Awards. The run of the show was so successful that they revived it again two years later. Now comes a version specifically designed for our pandemic age.

The play is set in a pub in Ireland. The bartender is sharing ghost stories with two regulars. They also discuss an imminent new arrival, a woman named Valerie who is renting a nearby house with the help of another former local, Finbar. Over the course of the play, with the men vying for her attention, the stories get more intense and some, deeply personal. 

Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Tim Ruddy, and Amanda Quaid star in this new version directed by Ciarán O’Reilly – completed with all social distancing required to keep everyone safe. Critics have raved about how innovative this particular production is.

The performances take place Wednesday, January 27th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Saturday, February 6th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Wednesday, February 10th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and Friday, February 19th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; February 28th at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST and March 3rd at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

The show runs 1 hour 50 minutes with no intermission.

Love, Noël – January 28th, February 3rd, 14th, 20th, 24th and March 4th

Barry Day, who has authored multiple books about playwright/composer/actor Noël Coward, created and wrote this two-person show about him. Coward wrote the plays Private Lives, Design for Living, Blithe Spirit and the musical Sail Away.

Steve Ross plays the piano and assumes the role of Coward in this two-character production that combines his letters and his music. KT Sullivan sings the songs and embodies many of the famous people, particularly Elaine Stritch and Marlene Dietrich, who made his songs come to life. The show was produced at Irish Rep in 2019.

The show runs 1 hour 15 minutes without an intermission.

The performances take place Thursday, January 28, at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Wednesday, February 3rd at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; Sunday, February 14th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST and Saturday, February 20th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; February 24th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST and March 4th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Belfast Blues – January 29th, February 7th, 13th, 17th, 23rd and March 5th

Geraldine Hughes first performed Belfast Blues in New York in 2005. Her one-person show examines both the troubles in Northern Ireland and her own eyes which helps explain the show’s subtitle, One Wee Girl’s Story About Family, War, Jesus and Hollywood.

This show was filmed at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre. The stage production was directed by Carol Kane.

The show runs 1 hour and 15 minutes with no intermission.

The performances take place Thursday, January 28, at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Wednesday, February 3rd at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; Sunday, February 14th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Saturday, February 20th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; February 23rd at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST and March 5th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Give Me Your Hand – January 30th, February 7th, 10th, 21st, 24th and March 6th

Poetry and art are combined in Give Me Your Hand. Dermot Crowley and Dearbhla Molloy serve as docents for a tour of The National Gallery of London.

Poet Paul Durcan wrote the poetry used here after his own visit to the museum. Crowley then turned that poetry, combined with images of works of art, into this two-character piece that was first performed at Irish Rep in 2012.

This performance was filmed at London’s Coronet Theatre and was directed by Jamie Beamish.

The show runs 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission.

The performances take place Saturday, January 30, at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; Sunday, February 7th at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST; Wednesday, February 10th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; Sunday, February 21st at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; February 24th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and March 6th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

A Touch of the Poet – January 30th, February 4th, 12th, 16th, 27th and March 6th

Playwright Eugene O’Neill (Long Day’s Journey Into Night) wrote this play in 1942. But it was not performed until 1958, nearly five years after his death.

Irishman Cornelius Melody’s life hasn’t turned out the way he had hoped or planned. Whether because of circumstance or whiskey is unclear. Living at an inn with his wife and daughter, Melody is keenly aware of his shortcomings. Yet when a well-to-do young man takes an interest in his daughter, his reaction isn’t the one you’d expect. Melody keeps his wife and daughter in the precarious position of being punished for not believing his stories and also for not acknowledging their lack of credibility.

This online production, from 2020, stars Belle Aykroyd, Ciaran Byrne, Robert Cuccioli, Kate Forbes, Mary McCann, Andy Murray, David O’Hara, Tim Ruddy, David Sitler and John C. Vennema. It was directed by Ciarán O’Reilly.

The show runs 2 hours and 45 minutes with an intermission.

The performances take place Saturday, January 30, at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Thursday, February 4th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Friday, February 12th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Tuesday, February 16th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; February 27th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PSTS and March 6th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

On Beckett/In Screen – January 31st, February 5th, 9th, 20th, 25th and March 7th

On Beckett/In Screen is an amazing show that combines the writing on Samuel Beckett with Bill Irwin’s impeccable ability to be a clown.

Samuel Beckett is the poet and playwright best known for Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting for Godot. Irwin, in addition to his award-winning performance in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, has appeared on Broadway in Full Moon.

In On Beckett/In Screen Irwin will performance excerpts from Godot plus The Unnamable and Texts for Nothing.

The Unnamable is the third in a trilogy of novels written by Beckett. It was published in 1953 and follows Molloy and Malone Dies (both of which were published in 1951). Texts for Nothing is series of thirteen untitled pieces of prose.

What Irwin does so brilliantly is to find not just the humor, but the emotion, in each of the Beckett pieces he performs.

On Beckett/In Screen was filmed at Irish Repertory Theatre. It was directed for film by M. Florian Staab and Bill Irwin.

The show runs 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission.

The performances take place Sunday, January 31, at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST; Friday, February 5th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Tuesday, February 9th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Saturday, February 20th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; February 25th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST and March 7th at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST

Meet Me In St. Louis – January 31st, February 2nd, 14th, 21st, 27th and March 7th

Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis, serves as the inspiration for this musical adaptation by Hugh Martin (High Spirits), Ralph Blane (Best Foot Forward) and Hugh Wheeler (Sweeney Todd). The musical made its debut on Broadway in 1989.

Meet Me in St. Louis tells the story of the Smith family in 1903 and follows them through the seasons leading up to the opening of the World’s Fair in 1904. 

In addition to the title song, the musical includes The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Irish Rep in New York has filmed a version of the musical that was adapted and directed by Charlotte Moore who appeared in the Broadway production. She’s assembled a terrific cast that includes Melissa Errico (Amour), Ali Ewoldt (Phantom of the Opera), Jay Aubrey Jones (Porgy and Bess) and Max von Essen (An American in Paris).

The show runs 1 hour and 45 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

The performances take place Wednesday, January 27, at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST; Tuesday, February 2nd at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST; Sunday, February 14th at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST; Wednesday, February 17th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; February 27th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and March 7th at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Main Photo: Aedín Moloney in Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom (Photo by Carol Rosegg/Courtesy Irish Repertory Theatre)

Update: This post has been updated to reflect an extension of the festival through March 7th.

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Samuel Beckett is the poet and playwright best known for Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting for Godot. Irwin, in addition to his award-winning performance in Edward Albee’s classic play, has appeared on Broadway in Full Moon and The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?

In On Beckett/In Screen Irwin will performance excerpts from Godot plus The Unnamable and Texts for Nothing.

The Unnamable is the third in a trilogy of novels written by Beckett. It was published in 1953 and follows Molloy and Malone Dies (both of which were published in 1951). Texts for Nothing is series of thirteen untitled pieces of prose.

What Irwin does so brilliantly is to find not just the humor, but the emotion, in each of the Beckett pieces he performs.

On Beckett/In Screen was filmed at Irish Repertory Theatre. It was directed for film by M. Florian Staab and Bill Irwin.

You must make reservations in advance to watch one of the eight performances. The schedule is as follows:

November 17th: 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

November 18th: 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST and 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

November 19th: 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

November 20th: 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

November 21st: 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST and 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

November 22nd: 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

Irish Rep suggests a donation of $25 per viewer, though reservations can be made if you are unable to pay that amount.

For reservations go here.

Photo: Bill Irwin in On Beckett/In Screen (Courtesy Irish Repertory Theatre)

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Los Angeles has seen many a great production of Beckett’s work (particularly when Alan Mandell is involved.) On Beckett is not a production of one of his shows, but rather a view into many of his works (both the well-known and lesser-known) through the prism of Irwin’s imagination.

What separates Beckett from other playwrights is his dark sense of humor. Beckett is best known for such plays as Waiting for Godot, Krapp’s Last Tape, Endgame and Happy Days. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1969.

In this show, Irwin will look at the Irish playwright and novelist’s work from the point-of-view of the role humor and clowning play in his work. That will serve as perfect fodder for Irwin who, in addition to being a Tony Award-winner for his performance in Broadway’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is also a celebrated clown. Full Moon, a show he created with his partner in that show, David Shiner, showcased his amazingly versatile clowning skills. (They performed the show at the then-named James Doolittle Theatre in 1994. The theatre is now known as the Montalbán.)

Irwin first performed this show at The Strand Theatre in San Francisco while developing the work with ACT in 2017. It was subsequently performed at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York in 2018.

Irwin is joined on stage by Carl Barber and Benjamin Taylor who rotate playing “The Boy.”

On Beckett runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.

For tickets to On Beckett go here.

Photo of Bill Irwin in On Beckett by Craig Schwartz/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group

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Beckett is the Irish playwright whose plays Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape along with Happy Days are considered some of the finest ever written. They also offer actors incredible roles to play. But, they aren’t easy.

Happy Days is filled with humor, but it is decidedly a dark sense of humor.  Winnie (Wiest) has been partially swallowed up by the earth. Nearby but out of reach is her husband, Willie (Michael Rudko). Their day begins and ends with the ringing of bells. But as time goes on, it seems as though those happy days she tries to convince herself still exist are plainly going further out of reach – just  as she is sinking deeper into the earth.

The play is mostly a monologue. There are limited interactions between Winnie and Willie. Those that occur are important, but as an audience we’re truly invested in Winnie’s perspective of life.  She has an intense need for companionship; she practices daily routines without the slightest acknowledgement that her life is stuck in one place (literally); and she finds that language appears to have lost its meaning for her.

Wiest is simply superb in this production, directed by James Bundy. Winnie is an opportunity for an actress to shine and Wiest does that and then some.

Happy Days is a play for theatergoers who want to be entertained (and there are plenty of laughs to be found), but also want to be challenged by a play, and a performance, that demand we pay attention, listen and ultimately feel.

The runtime of Happy Days is approximately 2 hours which includes a 15-minute intermission.

For tickets go here.

Main Photo: Diane Wiest in “Happy Days” (Photo by Craig Schwartz)

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The first, The Classic, offers up Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. Sartre won the Nobel Prize for No Exit, which was originally performed in Paris during the Nazi-occupation. The cast includes Pierre Adeli, Paulette Zubata, Cihan Sahin and Hannah Chodos in this story of three sinners whose expectations of hell are upended when they merely find themselves in a room.  Brian T. Finney directs.

Also part of The Classic is Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett.  It is a virtuoso role for a single male actor who plays a man on his 69th birthday. As he has on every birthday, he records his memories of the past year. When he listens to an tape from thirty years prior, he doesn’t recognize the optimism in his own voice.  Steve M. Porter plays Krapp. Cynthia Ettinger directs.

The Classic runs 2 hours and 15 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

If you are looking for something more modern, The Original might appeal to you. These are three pieces that were part of last year’s Angels, Devils and Other Things, but have continued to be developed. Each of the three pieces was written by members of The Actors’ Gang Ensemble.

Tradition was written by James Bane. Based on his own experiences as a soldier, it looks at the choices a soldier makes from enlisting in the Marines through to his return to civilian life.  What makes this particular piece intriguing is that this version of Tradition features an all-female cast:  Quonta Beasley, Kaili Holliser, Guberi VanOver and Andrea Monte Warren.  Tess Vidal directs.

A Perfect World, written by Lynde Houck, depicts a couple who have chosen to live in a fictional world where the games of their own imagination become their ritual. Danielle Powell directs. Lee Margaret Hanson and Jeremie Loncka star.

Finally the last part of The Original is Bob Turton’s Clean Slate. When a woman is offered the promise of freedom, but it has to be a solitary existence, will she opt to be alone? Or will solitude provide ever-deafening silence? Zoë Hall directs Mary Eileen O’Donnell and Tom Szymanski.

The Original runs 2 hours 20 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

For tickets for The Classic, please go here.

For tickets for The Original, please go here.

Main image:  Lee Margaret Hanson and Jeremie Loncka in “A Perfect World.” (Photo by Ashley Randall)

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“I’m getting there,” Mandell says regarding the preparation for his role. He plays Hamm, one of four characters who are perhaps facing oblivion. (Two of the characters live in trashcans, so it would seem they’re halfway there.) “I wake up in the middle of the night going, ‘What was that line?’” he says. “I wake up and [the script] is by my bed. I try to go back to sleep.”

The script by his bed contains notes and changes made by Beckett himself. “He was always making notes,” Mandell says. “He was forever correcting and eliminating. I remember when we were in Rome there were all these people in the audience with scripts in their hands. Afterwards some of them came back and said they liked the performance, but you left out these sections. I said, ‘Oh, no, Beckett made some cuts.’ They followed it so religiously. The fact that he had cut sections was a shock to people, but he was always doing that.”

The first time he appeared in Endgame, Mandell found himself rehearsing with the playwright. “When I first did Nagg, the Nell hadn’t arrived,” he says. (Nagg is Hamm’s father; Nell is Hamm’s mother.) “Beckett turned to me and said we should do the Nell/Nagg scenes. ‘Why don’t we pull up two chairs? I’ll do Nell and you do Nagg.’ Talk about being on the spot. We did the whole scene, and at the end he said, ‘You are going to be very good.’ It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The pace of Endgame was important to the playwright, and it’s just as important to Mandell. “He called it a chamber piece in eight movements, and he marked the eight movements in my script. Beckett mentioned if it is longer than 90 minutes, you’re doing something wrong. So I put myself on record—the runtime has to be less than 90 minutes. I don’t care if it is 80 or 90 minutes, as long as you keep the rhythm and the poetry of the piece there, that’s fine.”

“The other thing about this production that I love,” Mandell says, “is that I’m 88. Jimmy Greene, who plays Nagg, is 89, and Charlotte Rae, who is one of the Nells, is 90 on the 22 of this month. This must be one of the oldest casts in America!” (Rae alternates the role of Nell with Anne Gee Byrd.)

Speaking with Mandell you get a sense of how much Beckett meant to him. “I loved him,” he says. “This was the most honest, decent man—a wonderful man. He was a totally loyal friend and very generous. He’d get a royalty check of several thousand dollars and send it to somebody he felt needed it. He never asked for anything. He did all these things that people never knew about. He cared deeply about the people who worked for him and the people who did his work and were loyal to him.”

Though Mandell is considering one more stage role on Broadway, he says Endgame will make the conclusion of his stage career in L.A. “This is it,” he says. “There are other things I want to do. I’m at that time of my life when I look at my so-called bucket list, and there are places I want to go. I better travel while I’m able to do it. I won’t put myself through this again.”

Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz

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