DC Theatre Scene . Washington’s liveliest theatre web site

Take Me Away
by Gerald Murphy
produced by Solas Nua
directed by Linda Murray
reviewed by Tim Treanor

Oh, what a fine nasty little play this is, as mean as a wolverine and as tight as a Chinese box puzzle! What a sweet festival of malevolence do Eddie (Joe Cronin) and his three brutish sons create! To witness the crude, manipulative Eddie thrust and parry with sullen Bren (Jared Hill Mercier), dimwitted Kevin (Kevin O’Reilly) (more…)

• Portia Coughlan
• By Marina Carr
• Directed by Jessica Burgess
• Produced by Solas Nua
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

In the course of its nearly three-year history, Solas Nua has brought many fine plays to the Washington area.  Portia Coughlan is not one of them.

It is, instead, the misery-drunk saga of the extremely unpleasant Coughlan/Scully clan, whose members - for nearly two hours - demonstrate their need for psychotropic drugs.

(more…)

• Trad
• By Mark Doherty
• Directed by Linda Murray
• Produced by Solas Nua
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

Trad (short for “tradition,” one of its overarching themes) is a brilliant Irish stew of surreal comedy, touching drama, clever satire, and thoughtful allegory.  Solas Nua presents a professional and charming production of Mark Doherty’s award-winning play. (more…)

• Made in China
• By Mark O’Rowe
• Directed by Colin Hovde
• Produced by Solas Nua
• Reviewed by Ronnie Ruff

When it comes to cutting edge Irish theatre, it does not get much better than Solas Nua. Their 2005 production of Mark O’Rowe’s Howie The Rookie was a fabulous production that had humor, violence and rollercoaster like excitement - Irish story telling at its best.

(more…)

By Owen McCafferty

Produced by Solas Nua and Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast)

Directed by Des Kennedy

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

In Mojo/Mickybo, Owen McCafferty’s two-man tragedy staged by Keegan last January, Belfast bled all over the stage, as the City’s ceaseless Catholic-Protestant conflict made mincemeat out of two young boys’ friendship, and out of everything else.  Rona Munro mined similar territory in last year’s Bold Girls, and many other writers have explored the same thing.  Indeed, a theatrical company could easily plan a full season around staged examinations of The Troubles, and how they have robbed life of value in that benighted land. (more…)

Belfast director Des Kennedy is in town to direct his first U. S. production, Solas Nua’s Scenes from the Big Picture by Owen McCafferty (Mojo/ Mickybo). Callie Kimball, popular DC playwright and actress, leads Des in a lively conversation about the day-in-Belfast play, his take on American actors, his unusual techniques for rehearsing Big Picture’s 21 member cast, and the role The Laramie Project has played on his career. Finally, the 24-year director shares his discoveries in theater and upcoming projects.

Listen here.

Or play by clicking on the speaker icon

Scenes from the Big Picture runs through June 24^th at the Callan Theatre, Catholic University. For more information, visit the Solas Nua website.

(Run time: 18:57)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (403)

Produced by Solas Nua
Reviewed by Ronnie Ruff

Podcast with Kate Debelack by Joel Markowitz with Lorraine Treanor (follows the review)

Chris Davenport and Kate Debelack (Photo: C. Stanley Photography)

Irish playwright Enda Walsh, who was recently appointed Playwright in Residence for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, is becoming very familiar to Washington audiences. His 2005 play The Small Things does not tell a clearly defined story in the same way as last year’s Misterman or the excellent, well reviewed Bedbound – it does though, shower us with brilliantly constructed and colorful language. Frequently edgy and often shocking scraps of human cruelty, genocide and individual loneliness are accessible beneath the multiple layers of Walsh’s styled vocabulary. Walsh is a master at making you laugh at his characters and later feel really creepy that you found some things funny at all. (more…)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By: Ronnie Ruff

Bed Bound — Solas Nua

Edna Walsh has yet to achieve the popularity in America that Conor McPherson has but he is, none the less, one of the most important new playwrights in contemporary Irish theatre. Solas Nua, one of the most exciting local theatre companies around has mounted Bedbound, Walsh’s 2000 play at the DCAC in Adams Morgan. As the lights go down in the small DCAC space a large box that fills the stage collapses, three sides fall to the stage floor to reveal a single bed containing two adults. A physically imposing large man fully dressed in a rumpled business suit and a crippled young lady, her legs bent behind her, lay partially covered by a sheet. What follows is a play of incredibly strong emotional monologues that tell a complex story of the symbiotic relationship between these two crippled people. A young woman with polio (Linda Murray) and her psychotic father Maxie (Brian Hemmingsen) offer anger filled descriptions of their lives and explain how circumstances have brought them to this place of suffering.

(more…)

By: Ronnie Ruff

The Mai — Solas Nua 

Irish playwright Marina Carr offers many observations of importance in The Mai currently mounted at The Josephine Butler Arts Center in Columbia Heights. One of note is “Everyone is deranged — Some people just hide it better”, another and the central theme of the play is “There are two kinds of people — there are those that put their children first and those that put their lovers first.” We all parent differently and we are all vastly different people. The Mai, directed by Artistic Director Linda Murray and co-director Caroline Kenney is dreamy and stylish, while retaining the intimacy for which the company has received deserved praise.

This is a play of lilting Irish prose and biting sarcasm as told by the Mai’s sixteen year old daughter Millie (Stephanie Roswell) whose memories of her childhood give way to chilling visions of future events. The Mai (Kerry Waters) is a tragic figure who is left to raise her daughter alone by her philandering cellist husband Richard (Ken Arnold). She builds her family a mansion on the shores of Owl Lake a place of legend and Irish myth. Carr details spirited family arguments and finally anguished family holidays that lead to splits in the fabric that holds the the family together.

  (more…)

By: Ronnie Ruff

This Lime Tree Bower                         Scena

Come on in and sit around the table with Dan Brick, Eric Lucas and Joe Baker.. Let them tell you an Irish tale full of laughs and fine lessons learned; storytelling is something these lads are very, very good at. These three actors take this play by Conor McPherson and turn it inside out, upside down and every which way but loose. Director Robert McNamara’s superb direction shines throughout as in past Scena productions.

(more…)