Irish Arts Center in New York City gears up for St. Patrick’s Day

IAC gets ready for March Madness

By

CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

Irish Voice Arts Editor

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I <3 Alice <3 I

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Lesbian drama hasn't really been a major genre in contemporary Irish literature, sadly. For decades gifted writers like Emma Donoghue, whose last novel Room was a hotly tipped finalist for the Booker Prize, carried the torch almost single-handedly for the genre, but the nation's main stages refrained from giving them a major forum until now.

Next week direct from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin comes the U.S. debut of the oddly titled I Heart Alice Heart I, which explores several eventful decades in the life and love of an unlikely but completely devoted couple.

Written and directed by Amy Conroy, the play tells the hilarious and heartfelt story of two women from Dublin's Northside who defy every old stereotype you have ever heard about lesbian relationships as they delight you with a tale direct from the real Ireland (the one hidden behind the plaster facade that we show to the tourists).

A huge hit in Ireland where it won the New Irish Writing Award from Fishamble Theatre Company and the Best Female Performer Award, it's an irresistible blend of wit, wisdom and quick wig changes, as the play takes you on a breakneck tour of Irish attitudes to sex, love and commitment.

The Irish Arts Center in New York will host the production from February 29 to March 17, so you have time to rush in and catch it between now and St. Patrick's Day. The official opening for the show is on Sunday, March 4 at 7 p.m.

On March 6 in a rapidly expanding arts calendar, the center will present the award winning Canadian-Irish novelist, screenwriter and short story writer Peter Behrens.

Behrens published his first short story collection Night Driving in 1987, and a storied career as a screenwriter in Hollywood followed.

His first novel, The Law of Dreams published in 2006, traces years in the life of a family in the west of Ireland who are all but destroyed by the Great Irish Famine.

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Historians, novelists and readers alike will delight in Behrens’s achievements as he reflects on that novel and reads from the follow up The O’Briens, a compelling new tale that unfolds like a tour of the over half of the 20th century from the first flying machines, through two world wars, to the election of JFK.

Behrens is scheduled to open the center’s spring literary season with a free reading from his new work, which also marks the U.S. launch of the book. He will read at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6.

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