The IHT continues its season with a timely exploration of the lives of Irish women with a host of beautiful plays featuring great female characters directed by three fierce female directors: Tori Mittelman, Marcia Ferguson and Tina Brock.
We begin with the heartbreaking tragedy of Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge (directed by Tori Mittelman), in which Maurya has lost her husband and most of her sons to the unrelenting sea and now fears the worst for her other two sons. Her daughters struggle with how they will share the truth with Maurya without destroying what is left of this strong, powerful woman.
In Cathleen Ni Houlihan by Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats, a mysterious old woman visits the Gillane family and it is soon clear that she is the much abused Mother Ireland calling for the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for Irish independence.
Finally, we have four contemporary shorts by female playwrights from Fishamble's Tiny Plays for Ireland: Poster Boy by Antonia Hart, Commiserations by Niamh Creely, Hearts by Lucy Montague-Moffat, and Joan Ryan's Isolation (all directed by Tina Brock). All of these plays explore women's lives in modern Irish society in ways that are simultaneously smart, funny and insightful.