THE MOUNTAINS LOOK DIFFERENT BY MICHEÁL MAC LIAMMÓIR DIRECTED BY AIDAN REDMOND MAY 30 THROUGH JULY 14
The Mountains Look Different
by Micheál mac Liammóir Directed by Aidan Redmond
Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street)
Tickets on sale now! May 30 through July 14 Tue, Thu, Fri & Sat 7:30PM Wed, Sat & Sun 2:00PM Wed 7:30PM: 6/19 No performance: 6/21
Call the FPC Hotline at: 212-315-0231
EnrichMINT Events Director and Designers
Aidan Redmond and team Sat. June 1, after the matinee A peek into the design process with director Aidan Redmond and creative team. This panel discussion, moderated by Mint Artistic Director Jonathan Bank, will give you some insight into the collaborative process.
The Importance of Being Micheál
Maya Cantu Sat. June 8, after the matinee Mint Resident Dramaturg, Maya Cantu, will discuss our author’s remarkable life and six-decade long career in the theater. Additional EnrichMint events will be added as they are arranged. Check our website for dates and details.
The Mountains Look Different is the story of Bairbre’s return home to Ireland, after a dozen hard years in London working the streets. Three days ago she married Tom, who knows nothing of her past. Together, they hope to settle with Tom’s father on his farm, and live a simple life far from the temptations and torments of the sinful city. But soon they will learn that it’s not easy for anyone to escape their past, even among the rocks and ruins of the mountainside. The idea for the play struck mac Liammóir after working on Anna Christie (O’Neill’s 1922 Pulitzer winner, about a former prostitute who falls in love.) He wondered what happened to Anna after the fall of the curtain. Then one day he saw a young married woman in Connemara looking out of the window at a motorcar who said with the slight hint of a London accent in her voice, “They look different from what they did when I was little—the mountains, I mean.” The Mountains Look Different was first produced in Dublin in 1948. “It is a work within a stones throw of great tragedy,” Gabriel Fallow wrote in the Standard. “Has all the makings of strong drama here, and he lets us have it at full blast,” noted the Stage. “It is a powerful meaty play, the kind that has you coming up for air when the curtain goes down,” hailed the Evening Times. The Christian Science Monitor called Mountains “a courageous play in which there is no beating about the bush:” Mountains provoked heated controversy in conservative Dublin in 1948. The Irish Times reported that two men left their seats at intermission and asked the audience to join with them in leaving the theater: A third man rose from his seat in the gallery and said that he was in agreement with the protest. Shouts of: ‘Sit down’ and ‘If you don’t like it leave’ then came down from the audience. The man in the gallery was heard to say: ‘Are you Catholics?’ The ushers moved towards the men who were protesting; the orchestra began to play, and their voices were drowned. This Irish Independent, filled out the story with more detail: The play continued without interruption, but despite calls from the audience, Mr. mac Liammóir did not make a speech at the close, when he received an enthusiastic reception. Mr. mac Liammóir later told the Irish Independent that he believed the men who made the protest were sincere, but that it was a pity they had not waited to hear what the play had to say in the final act. The play had not been written from motives of sensationalism and was in no sense “shocking.” It was a drama of expiation and repentance…In a certain sense, it was in fact, a morality play.
About Micheál mac Liammóir Micheál mac Liammóir was a legendary figure, his death in 1978 was front-page news in the Irish Times for three days running. His obituary described him as “the dominant figure in the Irish theatrical world for almost half a century. “Hundreds Mourn MacLiammóir” was the headline describing the scene in the church the day of his funeral. Ireland’s President Dr. Hillery, “joined actors, artists, writers, Irish language enthusiasts and hundreds of people who had simply enjoyed his performances in mourning.” President Hillery proclaimed: The death of Micheál mac Liammóir leaves a deep void in Irish cultural life. His passing grieves not only the people of Ireland—it will be felt by the many elsewhere who also knew him, as an actor, outstanding and versatile dramatist, poet, man of letters. He dedicated his life to Ireland and offered her all the splendid gifts which he could give in so rich and diverse a manner, serving her and her cultural life generously and nobly. Headlines continued the next day, detailing the graveside tributes. Appropriately, the papers gave much attention to mac Liammóir’s partner of 50 years, Hilton Edwards. “I am unashamedly inconsolable at his loss,” Edwards told the Irish Times. Together they founded the Gate Theatre in 1928 and revolutionized Irish theatre, introducing Dublin theatergoers to important works by European and American dramatists, as well as new plays by Irish dramatists. Over the course of five decades, mac Liammóir himself captivated Dubliners and global audiences with his prolific work as an actor-playwright-designer. Marrying modern settings with mythic stories and themes, mac Liammóir’s plays included the fantasies Where Stars Walk (1940) and Ill Met by Moonlight (1946), as well as The Mountains Look Different (1948), and the autobiographical Prelude in Kazbek Street (1973). The Gate Theater produced The Mountains Look Different in 1948; mac Liammóir played the role of Tom and designed the scenery, Hilton Edwards was the director, and designed the lights. mac Liammóir delighted theater audiences for 50 years, playing innumerable roles. He enjoyed his greatest international success with his 1960 one-man show about Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Oscar, which toured the world and brought him great acclaim.
Call 212.315.0231 to buy your tickets today!
Photo by Richard Termine
George Morfogen 1933-2019
We mourn the loss of our great friend and valued colleague, George Morfogen, who died on March 8th at the age of 86. George appeared in seven Mint productions over a period of more than 20 years, including The Voysey Inheritance (1999), The Lonely Way (2005), The Madras House (2008), A Picture of Autumn (2013) and A Day by the Sea (2016).
Was the price of Thomas Scott too high? Knowing that Elizabeth Baker’s play was intended to provoke thought, we decided to poll our audience: Was Scott admirable or awful? We listed seven lines from various characters in the play and asked you to choose the line that spoke to you the most. Special thanks to the many First Priority Club members who responded! “A man ought to think of his family.”
25.58%
“If
a man can reconcile his actions with his conscience, no one, surely, has a right to say a word.”
23.72%
“We don’t know anything about it. It is so easy to misunderstand when you don’t know.”
20.00%
“A man shouldn’t let his conscience make a fool of him.”
15.81%
“I think it is brave whenever a man hurts himself for a cause-- even if it does seem a silly cause.”
7.91%
“A family is a nice excuse. Any coward can get behind that.”
4.65%
“Your father has always been misunderstood, my dear.”
Check your email for another poll about this newsletter!
< 3%
Dear Friend, Ten years ago, Mint produced a comedy called Is Life Worth Living by Lennox Robinson. Maybe some of you remember it? About a troupe of travelling players in Ireland specializing in the plays of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Strindberg… During rehearsals for that play, I discovered the genius of Micheál mac Liammóir: an artist, actor, and designer, co-founder of Dublin’s world famous Gate Theater— and an extraordinary writer. His book, All for Hecuba: An Irish Theatrical Autobiography was a wonderful resource about the life of the travelling player in the days that Lennox Robinson was writing about, but more than that, it’s one of my favorite books ever, a joy to read and an inspiration. I wish it were still in print. I read several other of his books, and then his plays. I’ve been thinking about producing The Mountains Look Different for a long time. Three years ago, I gave it to my colleague Aidan Redmond to read. He was on his way home to Ireland that evening and I got this email from him the next day: “Let us talk further when I get back. You’ve unearthed a gem.” Now Aidan is directing the play and here we are, getting ready to share this earthy, rich, powerful play with you. I look forward to seeing you back at Theatre Row soon.
ANNOUNCING! THE MOUNTAINS LOOK DIFFERENT BY MICHEÁL MAC LIAMMÓIR DIRECTED BY AIDAN REDMOND
MAY 30 THROUGH JULY 14 Tue, Thu, Fri & Sat 7:30PM Wed, Sat & Sun 2:00PM Wed 7:30PM: 6/19 No performance: 6/21
First Priority Club Hotline 212.315.0231
from your friends at Mint Theater
Happy Spring! www.minttheater.org 212.315.0231 330 West 42nd Street Suite 1210 New York, NY 10036
Jonathan
FIRST PRIORITY CLUB NEWS