In 2010 Mint claimed the role of champion on behalf of the brilliant, but forgotten Irish playwright, Teresa Deevy. The ambitious Teresa Deevy Project, which includes three productions, as well as two published compilations of her plays, was launched with her “crisp psychological drama,”1 WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN.

A love story examining a conflict between ambition and contentment, WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN was originally shunned by Ireland’s Abbey Theater, despite their having already produced six of Deevy’s plays between 1930 and 1936. The unexpected rejection drove the Deevy to begin writing almost exclusively for radio—remarkable considering that she had lost her hearing before radio arrived in Ireland.

“The Mint Theater is certainly making an elegant case that the Abbey Theater in Dublin missed an opportunity almost 70 years ago when it declined to produce WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN,” wrote The New York Times, who selected the show as a Critic’s Pick. “This rediscovered work is beautifully played under Jonathan Bank’s direction, on a lovely stonework set by Vicki R. Davis…the production is never less than compelling.”

Teresa Deevy (1894-1963)  After years of rejection, Deevy had her first play produced at Ireland’s Abbey Theater in 1930, at the age of 36.  One of Ireland’s leading critics predicted: “The new dramatist from whom most may be expected in the future is Miss T. Deevy.”[1]

Deevy lived up to expectations in 1932 when Temporal Powers shared first-prize in the Abbey’s new play competition.   The Irish Times called it “one of the most thoughtful works seen for sometime at the Abbey.”  Frank O’Connor, author and future Abbey director sent Deevy a note: “When I saw Reapers I knew something was happening. When I saw your new play, I realised it had happened with a vengeance.”

In 1936 Deevy’s most popular play, Katie Roche, premiered.  It was published in the “Famous Plays” series (“even though it cannot yet be called famous,” the publisher acknowledged) and was revived by the Abbey in 1949, 1975 and 1994—each time to critical acclaim: “Full of wisdom and compassionate warmth,” the Irish Independent gushed in 1975, “A most welcome draught of pure, fresh air in the theater.”

Deevy had six plays produced by the Abbey Theatre between 1930 and 1936, and then the Abbey turned its back on her.  WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN, Deevy’s next and perhaps best play was rejected, effectively ending her career as an Abbey playwright.  “I must just make an opening elsewhere,” she wrote to a friend, and then began to write for the radio—a remarkable turn of events, given that she was completely deaf.  She lost her hearing due to an illness in her late teens and was never able to hear her beautifully-crafted dialogue spoken.

Perhaps it was this handicap that lent her works the touch of genius that was acclaimed by critics.  Her characters showed their fascination, not so much in their direct speech as in their half-said allusions which revealed their depths of character and her own searching observations of human nature.[2]

John Jordan calls Deevy “the most humane of our dramatists….Indeed, no other Irish dramatist of the last quarter-century,” he writes in 1954, “has been more concerned with probing realistically the vagaries of human nature.”

Beginning on July 29th, 2010, the Mint Theater is very pleased to introduce you to Miss Teresa Deevy: “One of [Ireland’s] best and most neglected dramatists.”[3]

 

 

 

 

[1] The Irish Theatre in 1930, Andrew E. Malone: The Dublin Magazine, Vol. 6, No, 2.

[2] Obituary, The Irish Times, 1/21/1963.

[3] The Irish Times, 1953.

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CAST

  • Tom Carey Aidan Redmond
  • Bill McGafferty Jeremy S. Holm
  • Nan Bowers Janie Brookshire
  • Kate Moran Rosie Benton
  • James Whelan Shawn Fagan
  • Jack McClinsey Thomas Matthew Kelley
  • Apollo Moran Jon Fletcher
  • Nora Keane Liv Rooth

CREATIVES

  • Set Design Vicki R. Davis
  • Costume Design Martha Hally
  • Lighting Design Nicole Pearce
  • Sound Design Jane Shaw
  • Properties Design Deborah Gaouette
  • Dialects and Dramaturgy Amy Stoller
  • Casting Stuart Howard, Amy Schecter & Paul Hardt
  • Production Stage Manager Samone B. Weissman
  • Assistant Stage Manager Lauren McArthur
  • Assistant to the Director Arielle Lipshaw
  • Press Representative David Gersten & Associates
  • Illustration Stefano Imbert
  • Graphics Hunter Kaczorowski

CHRISTOPHER MORASH: ON THE OUTSIDE: TERESA DEEVY AND IRISH THEATRE

This special pre-show EnrichMINT Event focuses on locating Deevy’s work in the context of other Irish playwrights of her era.

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CHRISTOPHER MORASH: "OH, YOU'RE A WILD CREATURE": TERESA DEEVY'S WOMEN

Deevy created some of the most remarkable female characters in the Irish Drama: in Katie Roche, King of Spain’s Daughter and In Search of Valour. This talk explores their “wild” behavior!

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CHRISTOPHER MORASH: "NO USE FOR MY WORK:" DEEVY AND IRELAND'S ABBEY THEATRE

Christopher Morash is Professor and Head of English at National University of Ireland, Maynooth.  Chris’s publications include A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000 (Cambridge, 2002), which won the Theatre Book Prize from the Society for Theatre Research, and Writing the Irish Famine (Oxford, 1996), as well as a number of articles and lectures dealing with various aspects of Irish culture.

Deevy had a very fruitful relationship with the Abbey, up until the time they declined to produce Wife to James Whelan. This discussion explores that relationship, and its ending.

DIRECTOR JONATHAN BANK: MY TRIP TO IRELAND

Bank shares stories from his recent trip to Ireland, where he met with members of the Deevy family and visited Landscape, the Deevy home for generations. Teresa wrote many of her plays at Landscape, where her papers are now housed.

PROFESSOR EILEEN MORGAN-ZAYACHECK, SUNY ONEONTA: CHARTING THE AIRWAVES

Professor Eileen Morgan-Zayachek places Deevy’s radio plays within the context of Irish radio’s growth prior to World War II. In the 1930’s and early 1940’s, Irish broadcasting was underdeveloped and many writers looked down on radio drama. Thanks to pioneers like Deevy and intrepid broadcasters, attitudes changed.

Eileen Morgan-Zayachek is Chair of English and Associate Professor at SUNY Oneonta. She has written extensively on Irish radio during the 1930’s and 40’s and is co-editor of A Century of Irish Drama: Widening the Stage.

PROFESSOR JOHN P. HARRINGTON, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: IRELAND'S NATIONAL THEATER

After the death of its co-founder W.B. Yeats in 1939, the Abbey underwent many changes. Professor John P. Harrington discusses the transitory state of the Abbey during the late 1930’s and 40’s, which was also around the time Wife to James Whelan was rejected.

John P. Harrington is the author of The Irish Beckett, The Irish Play on the New York Stage and The Life of a Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street and editor of The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama and Irish Theater in America.

MEMBERS OF THE CAST AND DIRECTOR JONATHAN BANK: ANOTHER WIFE?

An alternate ending to WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN exists, though it’s unclear if it was ever used or if Teresa Deevy even wrote it. Members of the cast read this intriguing “other” ending—and fill in our audiences on what might have been!

PROFESSOR MAUREEN O. MURPHY, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: TERESA DEEVY IN CONTEXT

Professor Murphy contextualizes Deevy’s work as a woman writer in Ireland during the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Maureen O. Murphy was senior editor for the Dictionary of Irish Biography. She is Professor of Curriculum and Teaching in the School of Education, Health, and Human Services at Hofstra University.

DR. EILEEN KEARNEY, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: TERESA DEEVY: IRELAND'S FORGOTTEN SECOND LADY OF THE ABBEY THEATER

Dr. Eileen Kearney is one of the world’s leading authorities on Teresa Deevy. Kearney was the first scholar of her work; Deevy was the topic of her PhD dissertation over 25 years ago. Kearney contributed the Deevy chapter to the “Irish Playwrights Research and Production Sourcebook.”

MARY CAULFIELD, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN: THE POLITICAL DEEVY

Deevy came of age during the years of revolution in Ireland and was active politically; where did she stand?

Mary Caulfield’s PhD thesis is on the unpublished plays of activist, Constance Markievicz, whom Deevy admired.

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