RSS
Entertainment


Home Page > Entertainment > Irish female playwright gets well-deserved time in the spotlight with ‘Cell’

Blogs


comment on article Make a comment
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

Irish female playwright gets well-deserved time in the spotlight with ‘Cell’

Paula Meehan's play to be performed at the first Irish Theatre Festival

By
CAHIR O'DOHERTY,
Irish Voice Arts Editor

Published Thursday, September 3, 2009, 3:00 PM
Updated Thursday, September 3, 2009, 3:21 PM

 

Bookmark and Share

Laoisa Sexton and Aedin Moloney star in “Cell” by Irish poet and playwright Paula Meehan
Laoisa Sexton and Aedin Moloney star in “Cell” by Irish poet and playwright Paula Meehan

There are a lot of things that get discreetly hidden away in Ireland. Take poverty statistics, for example.

Did you know that Ireland has the highest percentage of people living in relative poverty in the entire European Union – or that the stark gap between rich and poor there is the most pronounced of any nation in Western Europe?

You won’t find that information in the tourist brochures. It just doesn’t square with our sense of ourselves, but those are the facts.

Another thing that gets inexplicably hidden away in Ireland are the challenging works of the country’s women playwrights and writers (the “Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing,” released in the early 1990s, originally omitted women from the entire literary canon without noticing).

Far too often in Ireland it’s the boys who hog the limelight (often literally) and all the glory that goes with it. Irish women writers usually have to wait (and wait) for their turn.

Take Paula Meehan, for example. Although renowned in Ireland, next week will see her first full scale production in New York in years.

Meehan’s play “Cell,” which will be staged as part of the first Irish Theatre Festival from September 8-20, tells the extraordinary story of four working class Dublin women, all mothers, whose lives and destinies are shaped by the deprivation of their own communities.

Meehan’s on home turf with this material. The award-winning playwright hails from inner city Dublin and she knows its hopes and fears intimately.

Presented by Ireland’s Fallen Angel Theatre Company, artistic director Aedin Moloney (daughter of the Chieftains leader Paddy Moloney) tells the Irish Voice and IrishCentral.com that the company was set up expressly to present the new plays written by female British and Irish playwrights in New York.

“The wealth of new female writing in England and Ireland has largely been untapped in New York,” says Moloney. “Fallen Angel Theatre is the first American company to present the work of Irish women writers that have never been performed in the United States.”

On her first read of the script of “Cell” Moloney was deeply impressed. It was dark material but it was also hilarious, a very Irish combination.

1 2 Next page >
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail


Be the first to make a comment.

It may take several minutes for your comment to appear.


Click to learn more from DiscoverIreland.com.


Connect to IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

Welcome to IrishCentral!
Please provide the following information in order to create your account

Username:
E-Mail Address:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy


Welcome to IrishCentral!
All we need is the following information and you will be part of the #1 Irish community in the US

E-Mail Address:
First select a unique username:
Username:
Now choose a password:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Thank you!

Just one more step and you will be part of the largest Irish community in America! Tell us a little more about you to start enjoying all the features of IrishCentral.

Additional Information:

First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Zip:
Gender: Male  Female 
Country:
Degree of Irishness:
Household Income:
Level of Education:

Subscribe to our newsletters:

The Best of IrishCentral - Daily Newsletter
Special Offers from our sponsors

or
Skip

You can edit your information at any time, just go to "my account" when you're logged in.

Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password