Irish 'Trad'-ition at Gloucester Stage

An Irish comedy that played to sold-out houses when it was produced in Boston is setting up shop on Cape Ann for two weeks.

The special production of "Trad" opens Thursday night at Gloucester Stage Company on East Main Street.

The title of the play — the creation of playwright Mark Doherty, also an actor, stand-up comedian and writer — is rooted in the word and meaning of "tradition."

It is a play of imagination; characters more than a century old, not to mention a father-son relationship, are at the core of the piece. But it is a far cry from other Irish works that often can be dark and haunting. "This play is about the past and the present — tradition," said director Carmel O'Reilly, a native of Northern Ireland from near Fermanagh.

"That's the burden of Irish history," O'Reilly added. "Can we move forward without giving up the past, but be brave enough to move into the future?

"It's funny but it has some serious undertones, too," she said. "It is about predicament — it's of the personal relationship between this father and son, and a broader affection on Irish society in a witty and hilarious way."

"Trad" is the award-winning tale of 100-year-old Thomas and his even older father. After the son confesses to having fathered a son in a fling in his youth, the two men journey across the Irish countryside to find the child, who is likely around 70 years old.

"You have the Irish son in bondage to the father, and both are very old, so it has an absurd quality," said O'Reilly. "You have Irish plays that are intense and heavy, but this one is in a way sending up the burden of our history ... The father is holding onto the dark past; the son cannot move forward as long as history holds him back."

O'Reilly, speaking in her subtle Irish brogue, described the work as sort of a surreal comedy.

"It's strangely absurd but yet it has history and a mythical, emotional journey. Our hearts are touched by it in a strange way," she said. "It manages, through this hilarious humor, to stop us in our tracks and make us think about family and relationships. It also pays homages to the Irish literary past in some ways through the dialogue."

"Trad" premiered at the Galway Arts Festival in 2004 and went on to Dublin, London, Adelaide, Australia, and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, where it won a Fringe First Award in 2005. It also received the 2004 BBC Radio Drama Award from the Stewart Parker Trust.

The cast and director of the Gloucester Stage production are one and the same as the production at the Boston Center for the Arts, featuring actors Nancy E. Carroll, Colin Hamell and Billy Meleady.

"People came up to us in Boston and wanted to see it a second time," said Carroll, a Rockport resident. "I could not be happier to be doing it again.

"It was a huge surprise hit in Boston," she said. "We were down in the basement of the BCA and we figured it would be nice if people showed up, and by the third or fourth performance, we were turning people away."

Carroll described her roles as a "really crabby 100-year-old woman" as well as a 150-year-old priest.

"This play is just a little gem," said Carroll. "It's funny but poignant and I'm just delighted to get a second go around with it."

Carroll and O'Reilly have worked together in the past in a play which took the Rockport resident, script in hand, to Ireland for tutoring for her Irish accent, an accent she puts to use again here.

Carroll has become a marquee regular at Gloucester Stage Company, with lead roles in 2008's acclaimed "Doubt: A Parable," and 2009's "Breath of Life." On Broadway, she was in "Present Laughter" at the Roundabout Theatre Company. She received the IRNE Award for Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd" at the New Repertory Theatre and Elliot Norton awards for her roles as Mommo in "Bailengangaire" with the Súgé°n Theatre Company, and Woman in "Brendan & Ms. Erickson in Present Laughter" with the Huntington Theatre Company.

O'Reilly makes her Gloucester Stage debut with "Trad." She is founder and artistic director of Boston's Súgé°n Theatre Company, which has produced several Elliot Norton Award-winning productions. She served as the 2010 Monan Visiting Professor in Theatre Arts at Boston College where she directed "Translations" by Brian Friel.

This show is a Tir Na Theatre production. The Gloucester Stage team also includes fiddler Morgan Evans-Weiler, guitarist Chad Kirchner, set designer J. Michael Griggs, costume designer Rachel Padula Shufelt and lighting designer John Malinowski.

Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3455, or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: "Trad," an award-winning Irish comedy by Mark Doherty

When: Sept. 2 to Sept. 12, with weekend matinees

Where: Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main St. in Gloucester

How much: Tickets are $37, senior citizen and students are $32. A limited number of half-price tickets are available to Cape Ann residents for Wednesday and Thursday performances. The 3 p.m. matinee this Saturday is a special Pay-What-You-Can matinee. Following the 4 p.m. performance this Sunday, theatergoers are invited to a free post-show discussion with the artists. For reservations or more information on show times, call the box office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.org.

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