Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Name: Philadelphia, Here I Come!
Start: 2025-03-19T00:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-03-22T23:59:59+00:00
Location: Cork Arts Theatre

by Brian Friel

Frustrated with his humdrum smalltown life in 1960s rural Ireland, Gar O’Donnell has made up his mind to emigrate to Philadelphia. Or, at least, he thinks he has. On the eve of his departure, life goes on as usual for everyone else. His untalkative father hardly seems to acknowledge that they will never meet again. Gar’s memory keeps straying to his one missed chance at love. And in the ‘survival shelter’ of his bedroom, his only real company on this long last night is the voice inside his head: Gar’s one constant playfellow, the confident man he yearns to be, but also, above all, his stinging conscience.

Friel’s masterful study of rural Irish society, the lure of distant shores, the inner world of the mind, and the life of unexpressed emotion, speaks as clearly to today’s audiences as it did to the theatregoers of 1964. In this production, Friel’s ingenious original idea — representing Public and Private Gar as separate characters — will be given a unique twist: the actors of Public and Private Gar will swap roles every night of the run.

Directed by Cian Morey and Jack Widger

*This amateur production of “Philadelphia, Here I Come!” is presented by arrangement with
Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk.

Tickets: €18, €15 (concessions)
*Booking fees apply.