“(Mr. Noone) develops each (conflict) in turn to a moment of physical or emotional violence, as if springing traps one by one … Engrossing…”
—The New York Times
The Story
The Blowin of Baile Gall
The renovation of a house for an English couple in a small Irish town causes tensions to build among the natives as old jealousies, bigotry and racism surface regarding outsiders settling in their town. But nothing prepares them for their new fellow employee, a black African refugee. This play speaks to the ages regarding acceptance and tolerance and the continual struggle and often times war that occurs when your identity is dependent upon your property.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Title of work: The Blowin of Baile Gall
Produced by
Irish Arts Centre, NYC
Boston Playwright’s Theatre
Published to buy here
Buy on Amazon
Published by: Dramatists Play Service
Awards
Elliot Norton for ‘Outstanding New Script’
IRNE for ‘Best New Play’.
Nice Things People Have Said
“Simmers beautifully and explodes
with force.”
—BackStage
“Wonderful dialogue … vivid and meaningful.”
—Curtain Up
“Excellent … searing and startling.”
—The Irish Voice
“Baile Gall shines.”
—The Boston Globe
“A dark comic edge infiltrates (this) sardonic study of xenophobia
and territorialism.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“Raw emotions and deep regrets fuel a fierce, often funny and fast-paced
new play.”
—The Boston Herald
Gabriel Byrne Co-Produces
New York Premiere
Ato Essandoh, who has appeared in the films “Garden State” and “Hitch,” stars. The cast also includes Susan McConnell, Ciaran Crawford and Colin Hamell. The production will boast sets by Richard Chambers, lighting by Dan Meeker, costumes by Jen Caprio and sound by Julie Pittman.
Set on a construction site in Baile Gall in the west of Ireland, The Blowin of Baile Gall centers on four workers struggling to build their futures in a changing world. When the general contractor returns from America and hires an African refugee instead of a local, generations of grudges, boiling just below the surface, are unearthed.
Read original article here.
Book: Other People’s Diasporas
“The book is enriched by a wide-ranging sense of the expressive genres in which such difficult questions are aired—not just fiction (the work of Joseph O’Connor and Roddy Doyle) and drama (selected works of Ronán Noone and Daniel O’Kelly), but also films by Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan, and Eugene Brady whose provenance is as much American by way of Hollywood as it is Irish per se.”
—New Hibernia Review
“A compelling argument about the role of race in
contemporary Irish culture.”
—Lauren Onkey, author of Blackness and Transatlantic Irish Identity
Read original article here.