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| Siobhan McKenna. |
Note: Several entries beginning with the letter H were inadvertently overlooked when their turn came to be posted. They are now being posted, albeit belatedly and out of alphabetical order.
HERE ARE LADIES [Dramatic Revue/Solo] D/S: Sean
Kenney; M: Sean O’Riada; P: New York Shakespeare Festival; T: Public
Theater/Estelle R Newman Theatre (OB); 2/22/71-5/1/71 (67)
A program of Irish writings by such as Yeats, Synge,
Beckett, Shaw, Joyce, and O’Casey, centering on material dealing with women. The
star, famous Irish actress Siobhan McKenna, presented a stirringly touching and
amusing performance, with wisdom and wit. Playing against an abstract,
Stonehenge-like background of imposing columns, with only a few props kept at
the ready on an onstage clothes tree, she held the interest throughout, aided
by effective lighting and music.
A narrative account linked the selections intelligently. In
the first half, McKenna wore black and read from diverse authors; in the
second, she switched to white and concentrated on Joyce. Molly Bloom’s soliloquy
from Ulysses, complete with “beflowered
chamber pot,” as Clive Barnes called it, was the highlight.
McKenna garnered Drama Desk Award for Outstanding
Performance.
The show later returned to New York and played at the Circle
in the Square’s new Broadway theatre from 3/29/73 to 5/13/73 for 40
performances. Brendan Gill approvingly noted: ‘Her chesty voice could bend a
silver dollar between one syllable and the next, and her least look of scorn
could wither a rose a at a thousand paces.”