Categories
Creative

Irish Theatre on Broadway

By Jordan Levinson

Irish theatre has a long and storied history on Broadway, dating back to the early 20th century. From the works of great Irish playwrights like George Bernard Shaw and Sean O’Casey to contemporary productions like “The Ferryman” and “Hangmen” Irish theatre has made a significant impact on the Broadway stage.

George Bernard Shaw at Shaw’s Corner, his home for 44 years (photo: Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo)

One of the earliest examples of Irish theatre on Broadway was George Bernard Shaw’s “John Bull’s Other Island,” which premiered in 1904. The play tells the story of an Englishman who travels to Ireland to build a hydroelectric power plant, but finds himself at odds with the locals and their way of life. The play was a success and helped establish Shaw as one of the leading playwrights of his time.

From left, Adam Petherbridge, Clare O’Malley, John Keating and Ed Malone in “The Plough and the Stars.”

Another notable Irish playwright who made an impact on Broadway was Sean O’Casey. His plays, including “Juno and the Paycock” and “The Plough and the Stars,” dealt with the struggles of working-class Irish families during the early 20th century. These plays were praised for their realistic depictions of life in Ireland and helped introduce American audiences to the political and social issues of the time.

The Weir 1999 Broadway Production Photo

A new generation of Irish playwrights emerged, including Brian Friel and Conor McPherson. Friel’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” (1991) tells the story of five unmarried sisters living in rural Ireland in 1936, while McPherson’s “The Weir” (1999) is a ghost story set in a remote Irish pub. Both plays were critical and commercial successes on Broadway, and helped establish Ireland as a major force in contemporary theatre.

In recent years, Irish theatre has continued to make an impact on Broadway. In 2012, “Once,” a musical based on the 2006 film of the same name, premiered on Broadway and went on to win eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show, which tells the story of a Dublin street musician and a Czech immigrant who fall in love, was praised for its heartfelt music and authentic portrayal of life in Dublin.

Another recent Irish production that made waves on Broadway was “The Ferryman,” a play by Jez Butterworth that premiered in 2018. Set in rural Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the play tells the story of a family caught up in the conflict. “The Ferryman” was praised for its powerful performances and gripping storytelling, and won four Tony Awards, including Best Play.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

You cannot write a piece about Irish theatre without playwright Martin McDonagh, a renowned Irish playwright and screenwriter who has made significant contributions to Broadway. He is best known for his dark comedies and exploration of human nature through his works. McDonagh made his Broadway debut in 1998 with “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” which was critically acclaimed and won four Tony Awards, including Best Play. He followed this up with “The Lonesome West,” “The Pillowman” and “Hangmen,” all of which were also well-received by audiences and critics. McDonagh’s works have brought a unique voice to Broadway, with their dark humor and complex characters. His contributions to the world of theater have helped to shape and define the modern stage, and his influence continues to be felt in productions around the world.

Gabriel Byrne’s “Walking With Ghosts”

Irish theatre on Broadway has also provided a platform for Irish actors to showcase their talent. Actors like Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, and Saoirse Ronan have all appeared in Irish productions on Broadway, helping to raise the profile of Irish theatre in the United States.

Irish plays have captivated audiences with their poignant storytelling and authentic depictions of Irish life. As long as there are talented Irish playwrights and actors, Irish theatre will continue to thrive on the Broadway stage.

Categories
Interviews

The ‘Rorschach Test Possibility of Theater’: An interview with Job playwright Max Wolf Friedlich

By Katie Devin Orenstein

Max Wolf Friedlich made a splash this fall with the world premiere of his play JOB. Starring Sydney Lemmon (Tár) and Peter Friedman (Succession), and directed by Friedlich’s longtime collaborator Michael Herwitz, the psychological thriller about tech workers in San Francisco, opened last October at Soho Playhouse. Now, the new play moves to the Connelly Theatre beginning on January 19th. 

We recently spoke to Max about his inspirations, from Martin McDonagh to AI Instagram influencers, and how the production hopes to bring new audiences to the Off-Broadway space. 

JOB playwright Max Wold Friedlich. Photo by Nikky Ayra

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Broadway’s Best Shows

Congratulations on the upcoming remount of Job at the Connelly! I’d love to know your influences, and how this script began. 

Max Wolf Friedlich 

I think at my core, it was growing up seeing Conor McPherson plays and Martin McDonagh plays, and Jez Butterworth and Sarah Kane, very British [and] Irish. Dark, twisty, supernatural, perverted, surreal, but also very real, often with a horror element. I think those were the things that as a kid were really foundational, and they are the kind of writer I still aspire to be.

Job is not the most autobiographical work. I started writing it as part of a theater development group in LA in fall of 2019. We were really actively working on it until the final preview that we locked. This past summer, we did a week-long workshop, where going in the script was 14 pages longer [than it is now.]

BBS

That was a very fruitful workshop if you cut 14 pages! Congratulations.

MWF

Thank you! I have worked with our director, Michael Herwitz, and our dramaturg-slash-producer Hannah Getts for many years. I write the plays, but we really develop [them] as a core trio. To be honest, it was pretty seamless. Where the play comes from is twofold. One is, I met someone at a party who had the job that is portrayed in the show, working in content moderation [for social media.] And the other element of it was, I worked for this very strange tech company that built fictional influencers, the most famous of which was called Lil Miquela

So I have the strange experience of being a famous woman on the internet by playing this character professionally. The parts of the play that are really autobiographical are like, when you have 1.3 million followers, and you’re portraying a 19-year-old young woman–I didn’t mainline the internet the same way that the character in the play does–but, I could look at my phone any hour of the day, and someone [would be] saying something really heartfelt, or really disturbing, or very weird, or, you know, “I’m in the Philippines, I love your fashion.” That’s crazy. It’s literally me, you know? 

BBS

That sounds like a truly surreal experience.

MWF

Really ran the gamut from Martin McDonagh to fake influencers. Yeah.

BBS

I’m imagining you at eight years old, just reading The Pillowman.

MWF

Maybe not eight, but probably…10. Yeah.

BBS

What was the theatrical experience that got you from a general interest in theater to playwriting?

MWF

I was a really self-conscious kid, which is why my mom suggested that I try acting. I really didn’t enjoy being on stage in that way. I didn’t like being told what to do. And then I wrote a Christmas play that I won’t disclose the details of because I picked it up again recently, like 10 years later, and it’s the next play that I want to do [after JOB.] It was a very perverse Christmas play. And my eighth grade English teacher, Mr. Byrne, was like, “I need to tell your parents about this. Because this is disgusting.” And also, “This is great, and you should keep going.”

JOB at Soho Playhouse. Photo by Emilio Madrid

BBS

The play takes place in a therapist’s office. And without saying too much, it is about a woman, Jane, who has been deeply traumatized. The show is constantly questioning mental health care, its relationship to being a participant in labor, and then also how trauma functions [in the brain]. 

MWF

Yeah. I did very little research into the actual job. That is encapsulated in the fact that it used to be fairly obvious that Jane worked at a very specific company. And then we were like, well, we’re not really doing the due diligence. We’re not representing these people. So the play is really an accentuated hyperbolic version of what it is to be on the internet. The experience of being online and growing up online is so ubiquitous that we don’t think of ourselves as having our brain chemistry altered and having seen traumatic images and had experiences that we shouldn’t have had, due to our access to the internet. 

There’s a lot of my own relationship with therapy too, which is I think a very uneasy one. I don’t go, not currently, but, I have historically gone. I think therapy is good. But I’ve always been unnerved by that relationship and being like, Who is this person? What have they done? I had a therapist once who, anytime I’d mention something in my relationship, he would be like, “women can be really difficult.” And then I found out through our setting [that] he was divorced. And I was like, “Okay, you’re kind of bringing your own stuff.”

I’m more interested in the Rorschach test possibility of theater, rather than being like, this is where I want you to get to. I think anything people take away from it is something that I’m cool with.

BBS

You’ve spoken about how this play is about and for young people. Can you tell me more about how Job is trying to show young people that theater can be about them?

MWF

I’m an avid theater goer. I grew up in New York and have seen a s***load of theater, and I simply don’t see a lot of things that address our generation’s experience. And I think that that can exist across lines of race and gender and sexuality. JOB is really about our modern relationship with labor. First and foremost, it’s a play about how Millennials and Gen Z see work and see their role in the world. We were really conscious [of that] in our branding. We used photographers and graphic designers who typically work in music editorial, because we didn’t want it to look like a play. Which – accessibility means a number of things, right? There’s very tangible things like ticket prices. And then there’s things in the middle. How do we actually reach this audience? You can make your ticket prices as low as you want but if the content isn’t for the demographic that it seeks to reach, and if you’re not reaching them, then there’s no way to get them there. It’s little things. I’m a huge advocate of saying, “hey, doors at 6:30, show’s at 7”, because, when young people go see music, and it says the show’s at 7, the show is never actually at 7. It lets people know that this is for them, that there aren’t tricky rules that they don’t understand. As a young person seeing theater when I was 10, or 11 or 12, I was made very aware that I was an outlier in those spaces. I don’t want 10 year olds coming to see JOB, to be clear! 

BBS

Ha, yeah, I was going to say.

JOB starts performances at the Connelly Theatre, 220 East 4th St, January 19th, and runs through March 3rd. $32-$127.