Theater: Irish Repertory Theatre / 132 West 22nd Street, New York, NY, 10011
Synopsis:
In Molly Sweeney, Ireland's master storyteller Brian Friel (Dancing at Lughnasa, Translations, Philadelphia, Here I Come!) has devised a riveting contemporary drama about the terrible consequences of a medical miracle. Molly has sat in happy, capable, independent darkness since she was ten months old. When her husband, a restless, unemployed enthusiast makes her blindness his latest cause, he consults a once famous star surgeon who, despite being half drowned in Irish whiskey agrees to attempt to restore Molly's sight.
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January 31, 2011: It takes two hours to watch “Molly Sweeney” at the Irish Repertory Theater. But you’ll spend much more time thinking about it afterward. A deeply moving meditation on hope, change and despair, it’s a compelling piece of theater, one in which the ending applause is only the beginning of the play’s effects.
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February 1, 2011: The gift of sight might not be such a boon for a blind person, who would have difficulty physically and mentally processing what they were seeing. This dilemma is explored by Tony Award-winning playwright Brian Friel in his compassionate, bittersweet tragedy, "Molly Sweeney," that opened Sunday night in a potent revival at the Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre.
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February 2, 2011: Considering how well Brian Friel is known for his poetic voice, it’s a bit surprising that his Molly Sweeney is so decidedly undramatic. The Irish playwright serves up plenty of masterfully imagistic language in his 1994 play; problem is, it’s all delivered in the past tense via a trio of alternating monologues (a format he used to better effect in Faith Healer). Read more: Review: Molly Sweeney - Theater - Time Out New York http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/theater/730131/review-molly-sweeney#ixzz1CpMe6ouw
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January 31, 2011: Let's quickly discard any notion that Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney -- now being revived at the Irish Repertory Theatre under Charlotte Moore's skillful direction -- is a play. Not that it matters, because Molly Sweeney is an entirely enthralling story told by three narrators in a two-act series of alternating monologues: Donegal habitue Molly Sweeney (Geraldine Hughes), her husband Frank (Ciaran O'Reilly), and local ophthalmologist-surgeon Mr. Rice (Jonathan Hogan).
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January 30, 2011: My usual reaction to monologue plays is to think, "Why didn't the author just write a novel?" If your characters aren't going to interact, only telling us the story rather than living it, we might as well be reading it on a cozy couch with a nice cup of tea. Brian Friel's "Molly Sweeney," which won the 1996 New York Drama Critics Circle Award as best foreign play, is the rare exception to this rule.
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