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Brian Friel’s powerful “Freedom of the City” comes to New York’s Irish Rep Theater

Friel’s tense play launches the Irish Repertory Theatre’s 25th anniversary season

MICHELLE K SMITH,

IrishCentral Intern

Published Saturday, September 29, 2012, 7:52 AM

Updated Saturday, September 29, 2012, 7:52 AM

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Irish Repertory Theater's poster for "Freedom of the City"

Photo by Irish Rep

Brian Friel’s 1974 Broadway play “The Freedom of the City”, directed by Ciaran O’Reilly, is set for an October run at the Irish Repertory Theater in New York.

“The Freedom of the City” is set in Derry, Northern Ireland, during a tense period. An official inquiry is made into the death of British soldiers by three marchers who appear from Guildhall after a civil rights meeting. “Expert” witnesses are brought and the real events are recreated. British police break up a peaceful protest and three strangers, Lily (Seymour) a middle aged mother and Michael (Russell) and Skinner (Sikora), two young men, find themselves in the Mayor’s office in Guildhall. They are mistaken for armed terrorists and once the city hears about the “occupation” of Guildhall, the church, the media, the army, and nationalists use the story of the “occupation” to suit their own ends.

Friel’s is the author other well known plays include “Translations” and the two Tony nominated plays “Philadelphia Here I Come!” and “Lovers.” “The Freedom of the City” was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1973 and it opened on Broadway the following year.

“The Freedom of the City” launches the Irish Repertory Theatre’s 25th Anniversary season. Also in the theatre season, Julian Sands performs in “A Celebration of Harold Printer” directed by John Malkovich.

The Irish Repertory Theatre was founded in 1988 by Producing Director Ciaran O’Reilly and Artistic Director Charlotte Moore to bring classic and contemporary Irish and Irish-American plays to an American audience. Their first production was Sean O’Casey’s “The Plough and the Stars.”

The Theatre seeks to give audiences context for appreciating modern Irish-American experiences and to to encourage new works to explore the Irish and Irish-American experience as well as other cultures. Moore and O’Reilly received the 2011 Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award from Irish American Writers & Artists, Inc.

O’Reilly, who recently worked on Eugene O’Neill’s “Beyond the Horizon” and cofounder of the Rep Theater will direct. This production will star Cara Seymour, Joseph Sikora, James Russell, and John C. Vennema. Performances run to November 25.

“The Freedom of the City” runs from 3rd October to 25th November at the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues). For more information visit the website, IrishRep.org.

Here's a trailer describing the play:

Nster.com

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Eschetic | Sep 30, 2012, 12:59 PM EDT

Back in 1974, the fine but under appreciated original Broadway production of FREEDOM OF THE CITY (4 previews and 9 performances, March 17 - 23 at the Alvin Theatre with the wonderful Lenny Baker and Kate Reid) marked my first exposure to Brian Friel who has since become one of my favorite playwrights. He had already made a mark for himself in New York with his PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME (with the David Merrick Arts Foundation behind it), and his DANCING AT LUGHNASA (with another major producing organization supporting it) would become something of a classic. FREEDOM OF THE CITY, wonderful as it was - actually thrilling for me as a relatively young theatre-goer (I was just out of law school) from both a theatrical and political standpoint in its examination of a tragic cross purpose confrontation between earnest protestors and too blinded by protocol military officials - strongly reminiscent of the botched handling of the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Dublin which, had it been handled with greater sensitivity, might NOT have led to the formation of the Irish free state after WWI, was given an under-financed production which wilted under the unsympathetic reception from the then critic from the Times (who never "soft pedaled" his British bias until he left for the Post) and unenthusiastic treatment by the other critics. Despite the quick fold originally, the simple, eloquent play has lived in other subsequent productions and as the Irish Rep moves from strength to strength (their recent NEW GIRL IN TOWN, despite some flaws in staging near the end, was a delight) is wise to "rediscover" this marvelous work. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing it again. My one wish is that some theatre company looking for an off-beat work give consideration to Friel's even less successful THE MUNDY SCHEME (a 4 performance flop from 1969, but a very funny script in print).

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Paul Hogan | Sep 30, 2012, 12:02 PM EDT

Seanmor,It could of been the Production or Political view of the time.You know that Friel pulled the showing for years.

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Paul Hogan | Sep 30, 2012, 11:51 AM EDT

This Is a great Play.If you can you should go and see it.I saw it in Chicago in 1974. I think that was the date.It was put on By DePaul University.This is one of Friels best works.

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Seanmor | Sep 29, 2012, 10:20 AM EDT

If I remember correctly, this play lasted less than a week in N.Y.C. in 1974, because critic Clyde Barnes of "The New York Times" gave it a horribly bad review.

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