It’s sure a good time to be Irish in Cincinnati!? Even before St. Paddy’s Day, Irish plays are everywhere!
A Couple of Blaguards by brothers Frank (Angela’s Ashes) and Malachy McCourt was performed twice over the weekend at the Irish Heritage Center – the former McKinley School on Eastern Avenue in Columbia Tusculum – and will be performed again in early May (4, 5, 6), before it travels to Dublin, Ireland for a theater festival.? So the play was both written and starred in by Irish folk – Kent Covey (co-founder of the IHC) and Mick McEvilley (an attorney), are the actors.
This play is the humorous part of the lives of Frank and Malachy growing up – or rather, evidence of their ability to see humor in agonizing details.? A fun and rowdy show, with the audience getting all the Irish family Irish school humor – clearly, most of us in the audience shared the same experiences, though not the same agony.
Then the Clifton Performance Theater / The Clifton Players finished its run of Disgruntled Employees by Cincinnati Kevin Crowley on Sunday evening, with an audience full of theater folk in attendance.? None of us were home watching the Academy Awards.
This is a pitch black comedy written about the time the term ‘going postal’ was coined.? Humor and horror in about equal measure.? Well played – an excellent cast.? I could barely believe their big smiles as they took their bows – each of them looked like totally different people, once their roles were cast off.
I very much regret not seeing their first ever production last fall, Superior Donuts.? This is clearly a superior company.
One of the people in the audience in Clifton on Sunday was Michael Shooner, currently starring in New Edgecliff Theatre’s St. Nicholas by Ireland’s Conor McPherson.? This show runs through March 10, and promises ‘ego, vampires and redemption’ – in a one man show!
All this is putting me totally in the mood to start baking my Irish soda bread for The Big Green Day!?? With organic Irish butter, no less.