A scene from the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company's production of Yeats's "On Baile's Strand."
By Irish Echo Staff
The Blue Raincoat Theatre Company is one of Ireland's most innovative, taking its performances to mountaintops, beaches and pubs in the members’ native Sligo.
This week in New York, it will present a production of “On Baile's Strand,” a play by W.B. Yeats. The company first performed the play on the original Coney Island in Sligo in 2014 and CualaNYC brings it to Coney Island in Brooklyn on this Sunday afternoon, as well as to Jacob Riis Beach in the Rockaways on Saturday. Both performances begin at 3 p.m.
“On Baile's Strand” is Yeats' interpretation of a dramatic story between two great Irish warriors: Cúchulainn, one of the greatest heroes of Irish mythology and legend, and Conchobhar, king of Ulster. (The sculpture of Cúchulainn at the General Post Office in Dublin by artist Oliver Sheppard commemorates the Easter Rising of 1916.)
Yeats spent his summers and other times of the year during his youth in Sligo, his mother’s home county, and his poetry is much influenced by the landscape and mythology and fairy lore of the area. And he traveled a number of times during adulthood to New York, the city where his painter father spent the last years of his life.
And he was familiar with Brooklyn. The writer’s first appearance for 1902-03 season was at Mrs. Field's Literary Society in the borough.
Connolly at Cooper Union
On the centenary of James Connolly’s execution, May 12, New York Irish musicians, writers and storytellers will perform in tribute on the Cooper Union stage where he spoke in 1902. The event, beginning at 7 p.m., will feature Michael Brunnock, Niall Connolly, Mary Courtney, Charles Cushing, John Duddy, Matt Gallagher, Honor Finnegan, Kevin Holohan, Michael Patrick MacDonald, Warren Malone, Honor Molloy, Aedin Moloney, Isabelle O’Connell, Brendan O’Shea, Laoisa Sexton and others.
The Scottish-born labor organizer Connolly spent seven years in the U.S. before finally settling in Ireland in 1910. He was a founder member of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union, the Irish Citizen Army and the Labour Party. He was a signatory of the Proclamation and executed on May 12, 1916.
For reservations and all CualaNYC events go to cualagroup.com.
Salon Éire 100
As part of Salon Éire 100, on next Tuesday, at 7 p.m., Aisling O’Mara will perform excerpts from “Rebel Rebel” at the American Irish Historical Society, 991 Fifth Ave., (Btw 80th & 81st Streets), New York, NY, 10028. “We meet Helena in her dressing room, preparing to go on stage once again as Cathleen in Yeats’ Cathleen Ni Houlihan at the Abbey Theatre. She summons her demons and the ghosts of that fateful Easter Monday, when she took guns from under the Abbey stage and spilled revolution onto the streets.”
This performance is followed by a post-show Q&A. The show was commissioned by RTÉ as part its Reflecting the Rising programme. First produced by ANU in association with Irish Theatre Institute and Dublin Fringe Festival.
At the same venue and time the following Tuesday, Conor Linehan and mezzo soprano Clare O'Malley will take a musical journey through Irish theatre with original music composed by “Linehan for “The Plough & The Stars” (O'Casey), “Deirdre” (W.B. Yeats), “The Dead” (James Joyce) , “Aristocrats” (Brian Friel), “Last Days Of A Reluctant Tyrant” (Tom Murphy) and “The Cordelia Dream” (Marina Carr).
And two days later, Thursday, May 19, at 6 p.m., Lenihan will perform the recital “Out of the Ashes” at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center: Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Ave., (Btw 64th & 65th Streets), New York, NY 10023.
In this informal concert, he performs music from the period of the 1916 Easter Rising, up to contemporary music from Ireland in 2016. He will play and discuss music by 20th and 21st century Irish and Irish-related composers in addition to his own contemporary compositions and improvisations on Irish songs.
Free tickets for Salon Eire 100 events can be booked at eventbrite.com.
