Irish Repertory Theatre presents the New Works Fall Festival, featuring readings of five new plays, spotlighting Irish female voices. The choice to spotlight Irish female voices in particular this November was intended to coincide with a gender equality referendum proposed to take place in Ireland. This referendum centres on Articles 40 and 41 of the Irish Constitution, which contain discriminatory language referring to a woman’s “life within the home” and mothers’ “duties within the home”. It has now been postponed to 2024.
The schedule is as follows:
Helen and I
by Meadhbh McHugh
November 2 @ 7 PM
With their father dying, Lynn and her older sister, Helen, return to their childhood home. Uninvited comes Lynn's husband, Tony, and intentionally summoned is Helen's teenage daughter, Evvy. The weather is hot, the past is sticky and the relationships tangle into an intractable mess.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Ursula Rani Sarma
Based on the book by Khaled Hosseini
November 7 @ 7 PM
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever-escalating dangers around them—in their home, as well as in the streets of Kabul—they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, playwright Ursula Rani Sarma reimagines Hosseini’s novel to show how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
Her Hand on the Trellis
by Katie Holly
November 9 @ 7 PM
Bernie happily cares for her ailing mother Bridge in a ramshackle house, slightly outside the community, both geographically and mentally. Forces outside the house attempt to control her choices and her future, while she desires to retain her childish status quo. The question becomes, is it easier to submit? Or to rail against the powers-that-be, no matter how futile the attempt at autonomy may be?
The Beacon
by Nancy Harris
November 14 @ 7 PM
Beiv, a celebrated artist, has moved from suburban Dublin to her holiday cottage on an island off the coast of West Cork. But a dark shadow from the past hangs over her. When her estranged son and his new young wife arrive to stay, she is faced with some difficult questions.
Rathmines Road
by Deirdre Kinahan
November 16 @ 7 PM
Set over one evening, Rathmines Road is a play that rages in a tiny room, challenging the cultural response to accusations of sexual assault.
