“In Act II, when most of his characters are inebriated and have just attended a funeral, he shoots for a kind of late-night Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? madness. It doesn’t work, but it’s a grand effort, and in the final moments, when many playwrights falter, Mr. Noone holds tight to character and credibility.”
—Anita Gates, The New York Times
The Story
Baile Baiste is “come day, go day” until Daithi O’Neill returns and sends the quiet Irish town reeling under the weight of recrimination. As a decade or more of secret guilt and resentment ends, four young men must come to terms with the abuse in their past. Daithi’s violent churchyard thievery puts the blame where Daithi says it should be: at the feet of Father Gannon and the absent but never forgotten Brother Angelus.
When Father Gannon refuses to acknowledge the past, the church’s secrets flood through the parish and rip apart the town, the bulwark of faith embodied by Sergeant Michael O’Brien and the town’s sensitive, fragile clown.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Name: The Lepers of Baile Baiste
Published to buy here
Published by Samuel French, Inc
Awards
Winner of the American College Theatre Fund's Student Playwriting Award
Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Best New Play
Nice Things People Have Said
“A plum performance in this or any theatrical season, it should not be missed.”
—Kathleen Foley, The LA Times
“…but it is a chance to become acquainted with a new, young playwright with a keenly observant mind…”
—Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up
“Fortunately, Mr. Noone disagrees and makes his points skillfully, with a confident, judicious use of symbolism worthy of Tennessee Williams. This includes creating a good reason for a large statue of an angel to be in a bar.”
—Anita Gates, The New York Times
“It heralds a new voice among young playwrights—a tight, seamless examination of some lost souls trying to survive.”
—T.H. McCulloh