A character from "Dublin by Lamplight." Photo by Katie Reing.
The Inis Nua Theatre Company, the only local theater group that produces only contemporary Irish and UK plays, announced its new season of plays and readings this week. The plays include the Philadelphia premier of “Little Gem” by Elaine Murphy which played to sellout crowds at Dublin’s 2008 Fringe Festival and Enda Walsh’s “The Walworth Farce.” Inis Nua has produced Walsh’s play, “Bedbound,” a Fringe Festival first place winner.
Recently, Inis Nua was invited to bring its production of “Dublin by Lamplight” to next month’s New York Irish Theater Festival. (You can help send them there by donating here.) The company is holding an “All-in for Dublin” charity poker tournament on Sunday, August 7, to raise money. It starts at 4 PM at the Latvian Society of Philadelphia at 531 North 7th Street.
Here’s what’s coming up on stage:
Landscape with Weapon by Joe Penhall (From England)
A reading on October 17th at 7pm
A well-meaning engineer has invented a new super-weapon with infinite and wonderful capabilities. That was before issues of financial gain and government control crept into the picture. Landscape with Weapon is a wry account of private anguish, public responsibility and a problem with no solution. By the writer of the award-winning play, Blue/Orange.
The Error of Their Ways by Torben Betts (From Scotland)
A reading on November 28th at 7pm
From a playwright lauded by many as the most exciting new voice in British theatre comes a shattering re-imagining of life as we live it now, set in the context of a bloody revolution. Witness to a brutal political assassination, we are introduced to a society fractured by a lack of belief in anything meaningful, in which everyone has something to protest against.
Random by Debbie Tucker Green (From England)
A reading on January 23rd at 7pm
Random explores a single day in the ordinary life of a black Londoner and the random incident that changes her life and that of her family. Tucker Green’s poetic rhythm and keen details create a spellbinding, elliptical story that shatters stereotypes by humanizing an all-too common inner-city event. Olivier Award winner.
Little Gem by Elaine Murphy. Directed by Kathryn MacMillan (From Ireland)
Philadephia Premiere
January 31-February 19. Location TBA.
This is the Philadelphia premiere of this amazing look into one transitional year in the lives of three generations of a Dublin family. Daughter Amber is taking an unexpected break from binge-drinking with the girls, mother Lorraine is testing the waters of love on the north side of 40; and granny Kay is watching her dear man slip away. Come have a listen. These women will shock, delight, and steal your heart.
Love Steals Us from Loneliness by Gary Owen (From Wales)
A reading on March 19th at 7pm
A drunken evening leads to an argument with repercussions lasting over forty years. This play explores viewpoints and how they change with age. This is playwright Gary Owen’s response to the media frenzy that followed twenty teen suicides in Bridgend from 2007-2010. From the author of Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco.
Didi’s Big Day by Paul Walker (From Ireland)
A reading on May 21st at 7pm
Didi and Peter have planned a beautiful dream wedding. What could go wrong for such a perfect couple? Missing rings, inappropriate speeches, and bridal party brawls collide in this hilarious story of the wedding from Hell.
The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh. Directed by Tom Reing (From Ireland)
Philadelphia Premiere
June 12th-June 30th at Christ Church Neighborhood House
What can happen when we become stuck by the stories we tell about our lives? Following on the success of Inis Nua’s production of Bedbound in 2010, visit the world of Enda Walsh again in the rundown London bedsit of a seemingly exiled father and his two sons. Twisting and turning, this farce combines uproarious comedic moments with shocking realism to portray a family absorbed by their own personal mythology
