Maria Szasz’s new book, Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway, attributes the success of the long-lived nonprofit theater company to the contributions of cofounders Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly. These actor-managers united in 1988 to produce, perform, direct, and write Irish theater and present it to New York City’s Off-Broadway community. They played in several locations in the early years but found a permanent home in 1995. The Irish Rep, as it is fondly called, now resides at 132 West 22nd Street in the Chelsea district.The need for an Irish repertory theater in New York, as demonstrated by Szasz, seemed obvious long before 1988. The entwined histories of Ireland and the United States are indisputable. The post-famine diaspora (approximately 1847–51) brought millions of Irish immigrants to the United States’ shores. As of this writing, there are more native Irish living outside of their country of origin than within Ireland itself. Not until the period from 1994 to 2007, known as the Celtic Tiger, did the Irish economy recover to a level robust enough to attract a substantial return of native Irish. By that time, generations were permanently settled in the United States. Despite the separation of miles, however, the love of Irish culture, whether native or Americanized, held fast.The “New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature” series at Palgrave Macmillan is ideal placement for a study of “the only theatre company in New York City that produces solely Irish and Irish American works” (3). The Irish Rep fills a unique niche in New York theater, and the rich body of dramatic literature it presents is worthy of book-length study and extensive citations. And to its founders’ credit, their theater continues to operate successfully in one of the most artistically scrutinized and financially challenging cities in the world.In the book’s foreword, O’Reilly and Moore explain that when they were initially approached by Szasz, they thought that they hadn’t been in existence long enough to warrant a study. Upon accepting that thirty-five years was indeed a remarkable accomplishment, they agreed to be interviewed and opened their archives to the author. The cofounders note that the book highlights research on over 200 plays produced at the Irish Repertory Theatre from 1988 to 2023, and that their theater is the fourth oldest Irish, Irish American, or Celtic theater company in North America and the oldest in New York. “It goes without saying,” they add, that “not a single production or a single brick could have been laid without the thousands who have come to our aid over the years, our board of directors, actors, designers, administrative staff, stage management, friends, family, supporters, and the country of Ireland that produced more playwrights than any other in the galaxy” (vii). Moore and O’Reilly wind up their justification for the necessity of the Irish Repertory Theatre by quoting the Pulitzer Prize–winning Irish American author, Frank McCourt, who once declared, “In the beginning was the word—and the Irish got it!” O’Reilly and Moore conclude, “We are very honored to continue offering the word” (viii).As suggested by the book’s title, the body of Szasz’s book follows the theater’s history in chronological order. Chapter 1 explores the importance of the Irish Repertory Theatre’s thirty-five-year history. The author quotes Hasia R. Diner of New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House to emphasize the representative nature of Irish culture: “If one was to choose a single population from which to tell the story of all immigrant groups, the women and men who left Ireland and came to America provide us with the most dramatic and most exemplary case” (2). Szasz reminds the reader that the Irish diaspora has shaped a community that numbers around 80 million around the world with only 17 percent of the population living in Ireland born outside of the Emerald Isle. Few places, Szasz notes, are as global as Ireland. The author’s argument is echoed by Moore and O’Reilly, who believe that Ireland and its diaspora, combined with its rich body of theatrical literature, offers an ideal source for a case study of forced immigration and the resulting cultural impact both at home and abroad.The chapter also highlights many of the distinguished national and international theater awards bestowed on the Irish Rep since its founding, including the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Joe A. Callaway Award, the Henry Hewes Design Award, the Off Broadway Alliance Award, the Obie Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Eugene O’Neill Medallion. O’Reilly and Moore are both inductees into the Irish American Hall of Fame and recipients of Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad presented by former President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins.The main reason for the Irish Rep’s longevity, however, is the talent, experience, and self-discipline of Moore and O’Reilly as a professional duo. Chapter 2 recounts Charlotte Moore’s formidable experience as a Tony-nominated actress prior to founding her theater. She was a member of the Off-Broadway’s Phoenix Repertory Theatre (1953–82) in which her talent was recognized and nurtured during her formative years of training. She cites Stephen Sondheim among her early champions who continued to help her in later years with the founding of the Irish Rep, where he eventually directed as well.Unlike the American-born Moore, Ciarán O’Reilly is native Irish, from Virginia, County Caven. His road to founding the Irish Rep was hard fought as he traveled back and forth between the United States and his home country, acting in plays and studying his craft, including a year in Ireland to learn the Stanislavsky method and many years in the United States working to reduce his discernible Irish accent. In 1980, Moore and O’Reilly developed admiration for each other’s talents after working together on a production of Hugh Leonard’s Summer in 1980, directed by Brian Murray. Thereafter, Moore and O’Reilly forged a partnership based on trust. Their respect for each other remains unconditional and became the foundation of their theater’s longevity.Chapters 3 through 7 give an overview of each season, listing and naming major actors, directors, designers, and playwrights who contributed to a given season’s productions. And, since the Irish Rep is a nonprofit theater, Moore and O’Reilly have hosted numerous fund-raisers. These include the participation of famous Irish American and Irish performers presenting musical interludes, readings, and Irish dance selections very much in the spirit of a classic Irish Cèilidh. One such event directed by Moore, which she titled How the Irish Saved Civilization, was a festive event referring to a book by the same name and included members of the popular Riverdance Company.Szasz notes that part of the Rep’s history has been identifying what playwrights connect most with the Rep’s audiences. Moore and O’Reilly have concluded that their audiences want to attend Irish plays that are “traditional and nostalgic.” Native Irish and Anglo-Irish playwrights such as W. B. Yeats, Seán O’Casey, Dion Boucicault, and John Millington Synge are staples, as are more contemporary playwrights Hugh Leonard, Tom Murphy, John O’Keefe, Samuel Beckett, and Thomas Kilroy. Frank McCourt’s The Irish . . . and How They Got That Way was revived numerous times to repeated success. Brian Friel, a revered native Irish writer whose Translations details England’s efforts to eradicate the Irish language and culture, remains the Rep’s most popular playwright with audiences. Moore and O’Reilly have also staged many works by the Irish American playwright Eugene O’Neill, including Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Beyond the Horizon, The Hairy Ape, The Emperor Jones, and A Touch of the Poet. Moore has also directed Take Me Along and New Girl in Town, the respective musical adaptations of O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! and “Anna Christie.” Moore and O’Reilly have introduced recent plays with Celtic Tiger subject matter. They have also produced several women playwrights such as Marina Carr and Patricia Burke Brogan. The latter playwright’s Eclipsed exposed the shame of the Magdelene laundries and was highly controversial when it originated in Ireland.Most actors cast in Irish Rep productions have been of Irish descent or of native Irish origin except when a non-Irish character calls for an exception. For instance, the highly respected classical actor John Douglas Thompson starred as the title character in The Emperor Jones in an award-winning production that was so popular it was given an extended run and transferred to the Off-Broadway Soho Rep. And, just as directors and performers from Ireland have come to work at the Rep, the Irish Repertory Theatre has, on occasion, been invited to perform on the Emerald Isle.Szasz’s jam-packed book leads the reader up to the pandemic period and beyond. Highlights include discussions of the most recent renovations to the theater facility, the adaptation of stage productions such as O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet and Friel’s Faith Healer into online formats when the theater was closed, and the twenty-third and twenty-fourth seasons when the doors of the theater opened once again for live audiences. In sum, Maria Szasz’s Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway makes an important contribution to understanding the Irish diaspora as recreated onstage at one of New York City’s most vital theater institutions.
Sheila Hickey Garvey (Sun,) studied this question.