A civic reception is taking place in the Brandon House Hotel, New Ross, tonight, to welcome visiting dignatories from the Danville Municipal Council, California, and the Eugene O’Neill Foundation and Society, on the occasion of the inaugural Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Drama taking place in New Ross over four days.
The festival will be both a cultural and a civic celebration of the strong ties between Ireland and the United States exemplified by O’Neill’s Irish heritage. Eugene O’Neill’s father James, along with his parents and siblings, lived in nearby Tinneranny and emigrated from New Ross in 1851.
The cultural tie between the two countries will be reinforced by the partnership of the O’Neill Ancestral Trust of New Ross and the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, of Danville, California, to produce the international O’Neill festival that is called ‘One Festival, Two Countries’.
The first half of the festival, the 19th annual Eugene O’Neill Festival in Danville, was held last month, and the second half, the 1st annual Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre is in New Ross this week.
Though a new event, the New Ross festival, taking place in the historic St Michael’s Theatre, will present an especially strong programme. Ben Barnes will direct two of the four plays.
They wanted to honour one of Wexford’s fine playwrights and so are delighted to present Eoin Colfer’s ‘My Real Life’, a hit at the Dublin and Edinburgh festivals in 2017.
Full advantage will be taken of the Dunbrody, the full-scale replica of a Famine Ship anchored in New Ross, to present a site-specific production of O’Neill’s ‘Glencairn’ cycle of one-act sea plays.
Director Eric Hayes’s Danville production of O’Neill’s Hughie will come to New Ross with an American cast. This is the first time a US production will grace the stage at St Michael’s Theatre.
On Thursday at 8 pm, Waterford Institue of Technology presents a screening of Edwin Porter’s 1913 film The Count of Monte Christo starring James O’Neill.
Also the story of James O’Neill will be presented in an illustrated talk by O’Neill scholar Dr Richard Hayes of WIT, with support from American Shakespearean actor Patrick Midgeley.
AUDIO ADDITION; SEAN REIDY, Chairman, The O’Neill Ancestral Trust, New Ross, explains details of the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre to DAN WALSH.