James Joyce’s novella, The Dead, describes a holiday gathering on January 6, 1904, the Feast of the Epiphany, in the Dublin home of two elderly sisters, Kate and Julia Morkan, and their niece, Mary Jane. At the party are students, friends, a celebrated tenor, a lost alcoholic, and the couple, Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. Over the course of an evening, there are conversations, music, dancing, and dining. There are speeches and disagreements – polite and impolite – and when it is all over Gabriel learns something about his wife that changes his sense of who she is and who they are to each other, of what it actually means to be alive, and to be dead.
This exquisite recreation of James Joyce’s haunting story was the most sought-after theatrical event of New York’s 2016 and 2017 holiday seasons. We relish the opportunity to welcome you again, or for the first time.
Christopher Innvar, stepping into a role played by the estimable Boyd Gaines eight years ago, brings an easy authority and charisma to Gabriel, while capturing the complacency that, for example, prompts him to ask Lily about her personal life. And in his scene alone with Gretta, played by a tender, radiant Kate Baldwin—one of musical theater’s more elegant leading ladies, who happily gets to sing here as well—Innvar conveys both the unease such men can experience when their perspectives come into question and the curiosity and yearning that distinguishes some from others.
A return production, in fact. The Dead, 1904—adapted by Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz from the Joyce short story, directed by Ciarán O’Reilly—originated as a site-specific production at the Historical Society back in 2016. A delightful divertissement, it was remounted in 2017 and 2018. Now, after a hiatus, it seems to have grown even more evocative. Or perhaps our perceptions of ghosts and the dead have changed since 2016. This two-hour trip through time, fueled by piano and violin, cider and stout, is a decided change of pace from a typical evening’s entertainment. Between the talents on display, the turn of the century (1900) ambience, and the hearty meal served communally to the 1904 and 2024 guests, The Dead is a distinctly unique evening’s entertainment.
2016 | Off-Broadway |
Irish Repertory 2016 Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
2017 | Off-Broadway |
Irish Repertory Theatre 2017 Return Engagement Off-Broadway |
2018 | Off-Broadway |
Irish Repertory Theatre 2018 Return Engagement Off-Broadway |
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Irish Rep Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
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