For a people whose history and literature are so deeply imbued with tragedy, the Irish sure know how to throw a great party. Such was the case on Monday, April 12, as Buffalo’s Irish community came together with a mixture of joy and sorrow to kick off the Irish Classical Theatre’s 20th Anniversary Season. About 150 people attended the event held at the elegant Harbour Club in the HSBC Arena.
The joy portion of the evening was represented by the large, handsomely illuminated posters (The Cant is pictured above) of the plays selected for the 2010-2011, known as the Emerald Anniversary Season. The now familiar style of illustration, which grace the theatre’s playbills and decorate the front windows of the theatre each year, served as the evening’s back drop. Buffalo’s favorite troubadour, Joe Head, softly played his guitar above the din of the mingling crowd.
The posters represented an exceptionally good selection of plays for this special new season: a Tony Award Winner, James Joyce’s The Dead, a “Christmas play with music” (who but the Irish would choose such a holiday presentation?); a Pulitzer Prize Winner, Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; a Renaissance farce, The Mandrake, by Machiavelli (which was given a hilarious introduction by Producing Director Fortunato Pezzimenti); a ghost story, Shining City, by Conor McPherson; a true Irish Classic, John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World; and not least, a new play, The Cant, by Shay Linehan, the winner of the Mr. & Mrs. Frank J. McGuire International Playwriting Competition.
The sorrow portion of the evening attended a melancholy moment, as Artistic Director Vincent O’Neill raised a toast to the memory of Dr. James Warde, who passed away unexpectedly last week. A native of Dublin, Dr. Warde, who served as Erie County’s first Mental Health Commissioner, and who was–with the O’Neill brothers Vincent and Chris, and ICTC Artist-in-Residence Josephine Hogan–one of the four founders of the Irish Classical Theatre.
In the best tradition of an Irish Wake, following the somber tribute, O’Neill regaled the assembly with rousing stories of those early O’Neill days in America, including their legendary Waiting for Godot, which this writer had the pleasure of seeing, improbably enough, in the basement of Townsell’s Airport Hotel in Cheektowaga. Such were the modest beginnings of what has become one of the premier theatres in Upstate New York.
In an ambitious effort to expand ICTC’s sterling image, the evening’s highlight was the announcement of the winning entry in the Mr. & Mrs. Frank J. McGuire International Playwriting Competition. The Cant by Shay Linehan will have its World Premiere at ICTC as the first production of the new season.
The playwriting competition, a $100,000 investment, was funded by the McGuire family and the Buffalo Sabres Foundation. It received over 100 entries from eligible citizens of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The winning entry, which merits a $20,000 prize, was selected by eleven adjudicators from both sides of the Atlantic.
A laborious process narrowed 100 entries down to 27, still an enormous undertaking for the judges. One of those judges, actor/director Greg Natale said he’d already read 25 of the entries when he came upon The Cant, and he knew immediately it was the one, an experience apparently shared by several of the adjudicators. Adjudicator Derek Campbell, an associate director of ICTC, thought that there were perhaps as many as five plays of very high quality among the entries, an extraordinary achievement.
According to the Arts Council of Ireland, the McGuire International Playwriting Competition is the only international playwriting contest of such significance in Ireland. O’Neill stated that every extraordinary theatre needs to create an exceptional new play, and it is hoped that this competition will not only bring international attention to Buffalo as a premier arts destination, but support local cultural tourism efforts. “The competition,” said O’Neill, “…[is] a catalyst to reach out to Ireland and put Buffalo on the national map, and hopefully, the international map.”
Producing a new play is not new to ICTC, which presented Bryan Delaney’s new work, The Cobbler, a few seasons ago, and which had a well received reading last year at New York’s Irish Theatre Festival. Vincent O’Neill’s own award-winning pieces, Joyicity and Night Maze, adaptations of James Joyce’s work, also have enjoyed successful runs in several venues.
Clearly however, one goal of the competition will be to see The Cant produced commercially in the most significant theatre venues, such as New York, Dublin, or possibly London. That would be a major coup for ICTC, and for Buffalo.
The evening’s festivities continued with Artvoice theatre editor Tony Chase, who spoke of the powerful, if impermanent, nature of theatre. He acknowledged ICTC’s significant impact upon the local theatre scene. The local theatre critic noted that ICTC’s start coincided with the first publications of Artvoice, also 20 years ago. Chase pointed to over 165 Artie nominations and 50 awards the company has garnered in the past two decades. This unsurpassed record served as the springboard for Chase’s announcement that Vincent O’Neill would be honored with the Artvoice Lifetime Career Achievement Award at the upcoming Artie Awards.
The presentation concluded with O’Neill’s introduction of the competition’s winner, Irish Playwright Shay Linehan, a fellow Dubliner who actually hails from the same neighborhood as the O’Neill clan. That coincidence aside, O’Neill denied that “the fix was in”.
The winner came to Buffalo through circuitous route. For twenty years, Linehan taught in Zambia. “In Africa?” I queried, not quite sure I had heard him right. Africa indeed. Time enough to hone his writing skills. “I was once proclaimed Zambia’s greatest living playwright,” he said dryly, ” that happened at the funeral of Zambia’s other playwright.”
Linehan, witty and gracious, explained The Cant as the secret language of the “Knackers” of Ireland (a derogatory term). They are the Emerald Isle’s gypsies, a people who live on the edge, separate from the permanent residents. Temptingly, the author exposed The Cant not merely as a secret language, but a secret way not to communicate. The comedy-drama features connections to a paternal exile in America, fraternal rivalries in a pub, and a maternal effort to protect the family’s “precious history”. Typical Irish family if you ask this writer, and if the adjudicators are to be believed, it’s a play you will not want to miss.
With that, some of the braver souls headed up to Ulrich’s Tavern, a favorite watering hole where the much loved Dr. Warde was known to break out into one of his beloved Irish ditties, and where, no doubt, several more toasts were raised in his honor.
To purchase tickets for any of the shows that are part of the Irish Classical Theatre’s 20th Season, visit their website.
—-
Neil Garvey, attorney/actor/writer, is a native East Auroran and 30 year resident of Buffalo’s Elmwood neighborhood. Long involved in the cultural & civic life of Buffalo, he has served on several theaters & civic boards, including the Delaware Park Steering Committee. The first board chair of Shakespeare in Delaware Park, he served as the co
mpany’s first CEO and appeared in or produced some 25 Shakespeare plays. Stage credits include Shea’s, Studio Arena, The Kavinoky, The Irish Classical, Road Less Traveled, and played Santa Claus for the BPO Holiday Pops for the past eight seasons.