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Irish Theatre Fest puts new Irish writing on the map in Manhattan

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Mary Murray and Aidan Kelly in “The Pride of Parnell Street” by Sebastian Barry

Photo by Patrick Redmond

Ireland’s economy may be in very deep waters, but culturally we’re becoming a superpower. If you need proof of how influential our tiny little island still is on the world’s stage, look no further than the multiple stages of the 1st Irish Theatre Festival playing throughout Manhattan this month.

Featuring 21 Irish playwrights, 12 venues, five world premieres, and 375 artists over five weeks (the entire event runs from September 1 to October 4) the rapidly growing Irish theater festival has been a success story from its first day, actually doubling in size this year since its inaugural year in 2008. Even the normally jaded critics of The New York Times have taken notice, penning rave reviews for the first few shows to hit town.

That never happens. Normally ethnic based arts festivals cry out for press attention. So it’s a measure of the hunger for all things Irish that the critics have turned up at all.

Featuring exciting new Irish plays with punchy titles like “Trad,” “Cell,” “Blood Guilty,” “The Good Thief,” “Walking the Road” and “Short Wake,” the shows are already selling out just as the festival begins to hit its stride this week. It also helps that the material on offer is so diverse -- several shows feature Irish actors who are at least as well known as the playwrights themselves, proving that the festival has really found its feet in its second year.

For Vincent Dowling, 80, the legendary former artistic director of Ireland’s National Theatre the Abbey, it’s been a rare opportunity to take to the boards himself alongside the gifted Christy Jones, a fellow septuagenarian, in a rare appearance for the Bronx Theatre Company’s affecting Irish drama “Blood Guilty.”

Set in a remote Irish farmhouse where two elderly brothers are wrenched out of their isolation when the future comes knocking at their door, playwright Antoine O’Flatharta’s oddly memorable and affecting one-act drama reveals how the past, present and future are often inextricably linked.

“Blood Guilty,” in which Dowling and Jones play the two elderly brothers, offers a violent old versus young facedown that lingers in the memory. Where, the play asks, does responsibility lie for the sins of the past and present? How do we move forward without giving in to our grief and anger?

For Dowling, working on “Blood Guilty” has been a rewarding and provocative experience.

“I’ve found myself being oddly moved by this play even as I’m performing it. The strange thing is that it happens when I least expect it -- and I know this is true for the other actors too,” he says.

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