Sinéad O’Brien Lands Best Play Honors at Irish Theatre Festival

The 17th annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival dished out a host of awards, including Best Male Actor to Alan Smyth, Best Female Actor to Kate Burton, while playwright Sinéad O’Brien of Limerick, Ireland, snagged the Best Play award for her spirited one-woman play, No One Is Coming.

Although the one-woman show was performed for only two nights in New York, the play, about the turbulent relationship between a mother and daughter, had already made a national tour in Ireland last year after receiving rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2023. This was O’Brien’s New York debut. O’Brien was also nominated for Best Female Actor.

Los Angeles-based actor Smyth delivered a tour-de force performance in A Night in November. Playwright Marie Jones set the play with a backdrop of the Troubles in 1993 when the Northern Ireland soccer team was playing the Republic of Ireland at Windsor Park in Belfast in a qualifying game for the World Cup. Tensions in the embattled province were high because the match came only weeks after a botched bombing by the IRA killed 10 people in the Shankill Road attack and a retaliatory massacre in Derry by the Ulster Defense Association that killed eight civilians. This deep, funny, and heartfelt one-man show embraces hope, redemption, and a desire to connect with the “best there is in human nature,” even in the face of true hatred, fear, and mistrust of the other.

Best Female Actor award winner was Kate Burton of Irishtown (which just wrapped up its run on May 25, www.origintheatre.org) Burton is a three-time Tony and Emmy nominee, known for a variety of theatrical productions, films, and TV series including Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Ransom Canyon. She is the daughter of film star and Tony winner Richard Burton; her mother was producer Sybil Burton, and her eventual stepmother was Elizabeth Taylor. She was out of state teaching, so she was unable to accept her award in person. A letter was read on her behalf while she thanked everyone in the production, including Saoirse-Monica Jackson (from Netflix’s Derry Girls), Brenda Meaney, Angela Reed, Kevin Oliver Lynch, Roger Clark, writer Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, and director, Nicola Murphy Dubey.

Snatching the Best Production award from the grave was Big Telly Theatre Company’s immersive comedy Granny Jackson’s Dead. Devised by Zoe Seaton, this is the Northern Ireland company’s third visit to New York and third time among the winners. The award is shared with Big Telly’s US co-producers, the Philadelphia-based Inis Nua and Tiny Dynamite.

The Irish Repertory Theatre’s hit world-premiere production of Ciara Elizabeth Smyth’s satirical comedy Irishtown won two awards at the closing ceremony held April 28. Nicola Murphy Dubey shared the Best Director award with Hannah Ciesil, director of the comedy Breezy Point, a new comedy by Rosie Coursey.

The Irish Rep’s audience erupted in cheers when it was announced that the Army Veteran, playwright, cabbie and radio host John McDonagh was the recipient of this year’s Bairbre Dowling Spirit of the Festival award. Handed out by Origin since 2016, the award is given to standout participants who make unique contributions to the Festival. This year, while he had his own show in competition (A Cop, A Cabbie, A Crusader, also starring Al Gonzales and Brendan Fay), McDonagh continued to promote multiple Festival shows on his Sunday radio show on WBAI as well as showing up at the shows of his colleagues. Brenda Meaney, Dowling’s daughter, who is in the cast of Irishtown, presented the award to McDonagh.

Since its founding in 2002, Origin has introduced works by over 300 playwrights to US audiences, from such countries as the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Macedonia, Norway, Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The latest festival featured 12 productions, including five from Ireland and seven locally.

Irish Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Charlotte Moore and Producing Director Ciaran O’Reilly watched with admiration. “It is a glorious night, and the theater is so proud of all of the artists who are up on that stage. This is a night of camaraderie, and a lot of people getting in the same room who love what they do, and we’re celebrating that.” O’Reilly concluded, “Everybody is a winner here tonight.”

Origin 1st Irish is supported by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Program, the Ireland Funds, the Larsen Fund, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Keys to Literacy and Learning, and the law firm of Rosenberg, Giger and Perala.