This month, Milwaukee plays host to the annual Acting Irish International Theatre Festival. The festival features nine plays in five days.
Milwaukee Irish Arts opens the festival on May 24 with The Plough and the Stars: Sean O’Casey’s drama set in a Dublin tenement in 1916.
May 25 features a pair of dramas. Chicago’s Magpie Theatre Company presents The Creek by Jim Lunch. It’s the story of a pair of siblings forced to address an unacknowledged past as their mother has become deathly ill. The Creek will be staged on matinee at 2:00 p.m.
The evening show on May 25 comes to the stage courtesy of Liffey Players Drama Society of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In their production of Eugene O’Brien’s comic drama Eden, a husband and wife deal with life through contrasting fantasies.
On May 26, the festival opens with an Irish group from Ireland as Dublin’s Heads on Stage theater group performs Chapatti--the contemporary playwright’s romantic comedy about a couple of people who find love late in life. The romantic comedy is staged at 2:00 p.m.
The evening show on the 26 has the Gaelic Park Players of Chicago performing Sean O’Casey’s political drama Shadow of a Gunman.
The festival welcomes The Irish Players of Rochester (New York) for the matinee on May 27 is it presents Conor McPhearson’s The Seafarer. This is one of my favorites. The Rep did it a number of years ago. A group of people play cards. One of them turns out to be The Devil. Kind of a fun comedic drama.
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Friday’s evening show comes courtesy of Irish Theatre of Florida as they present Gillian Grattan’s Hooked. It’s the story of a woman moving away from Dublin to live in a small country village.
The festival enters its final day on May 28 with a matinee from Cincinnati’s The Irish American Theatre Company as it presents Conor McPhearson’s The Weir. It’s kind of a fun premise: a rural Irish bar has regulars trying to scare a big city girl from Dublin. Naturally, she ends up scaring them instead.
The festival ends on Saturday evening as Winnipeg’s Tara Players present Laoisa Sexton’s The Last Days of Cleopatra. It’s a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family that fails to communicate.
All shows take place at the Next Act Theatre on 255 S. Water St. For tickets and more information, visit Milwaukee Irish Arts online.
