Irish Plays & Tony Awards
The Tony Awards were announced last night, and three Irish plays featured. The Kansas City Star’s Robert Trussell was in New York to review some plays and to put it simply he reported Brian Friel’s Faith Healer as the best theater he’s ever seen:
This production is what critics and theater-lovers dream of: a marriage of brilliant writing and world-class performances in a series of monologues that reveal a sad, suspenseful and disturbing tale of people dwelling in the margins of a long-ago time and place
Faith Healer wasn’t up for Best Play, but actor Ian McDiarmid was nominated for Featured Actor in a Play, and he won. I must say I’ve been impressed with McDiarmid’s spirited defence of the Star Wars prequel trilogy these last couple of years, particularly in reference to his role. It’s good a Tony Award winning actor refuses to rubbish something the rest of us find all to easy to rubbish (It is rubbish).
Plays by Conor McPherson and Martin McDonagh were nominated in the Best Play category however though as largely predicted both lost out to Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Frussell also managed to catch McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and enjoyed the romp:
[the play] confirms McDonagh’s gift as a master of plot mechanics, embedding so many twists, turns and reversals in his story that it keeps you on the edge of your seat — even at its most absurd. This show is a trip
Remember in the Kansas City region you do have opportunities to see plays by these Irish playwrights:
• The Weir by Conor McPherson
• The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh
• The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
Full details of nominations and awards are on the official website
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
