“An Improbably Beautiful Show”
Variety |
"A Sensational Seafaring Epic"
NYTheatre.com
|
“A Rip-Roaring Theatrical Adventure"
Washington Post |
“A Triumph, A Joy and a Delight!”
Irish Times |
Catalpa
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!
Written and performed by Donal O’Kelly
With live music composed and performed by Trevor Knight
November 12 – 30
| Tues-Fri* 8pm, Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun** 3pm
*No performances Wednesday, November 26th or Thursday, November 27th
**Added Performance on Sunday, November 30th at 7:30
Admission: $60 General Sale/ $55 Members Click here to buy now!
Based on the true story
of the daring rescue
of six Irish prisoners
in 1875, Catalpais a “rip-roaring theatrical
adventure” (Washington
Post),in the great epic
tradition of Moby Dick, Gone With The Wind,
and The Great Escape,
performed with
virtuosity by Ireland’s
greatest playwright-performer.
From the whaling town of
New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the prison colony of
Fremantle, Australia, to the scene of New York City’s first
ticker-tape parade, Donal O’Kelly takes us on a journey across
the high seas aboard the whaling ship Catalpa. Catalpa has thrilled audiences and dazzled critics all over
the world – Dublin, Melbourne, London, Chicago, Toronto,
Paris, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Geneva. This
fall, it finally sets sail for New York.
Presented in association
with Georganne Aldrich Heller, with support from Culture
Ireland, the New York State Council on the Arts and the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
VARIETY: Catalpa is “An Improbably Beautiful Show”
“(Donal O’Kelly’s) high-seas-adventure story is vast and generous, and his ability to contain all its double-dealing, danger and passion is astonishing.
Few actors can claim to have swashbuckled alone, but when O'Kelly's story really hits its stride, he's dodging cannonballs and hoisting the mainsail with the best of them.
It's an improbably beautiful show, especially considering O'Kelly has only a white sheet hanging from a pipe and Ronan Fingleton's lights to paint a picture. The really gorgeous visuals of "Catalpa" take place in our heads, with the singing, declaiming, gesticulating O'Kelly the touchstone.” |
NYTHEATRE.COM: Catalpa is “A Sensational Seafaring Epic”
A “Rich and Poignant Tale” that “Shouldn’t Be Missed”
Inspired by a daring rescue of six Irish prisoners in 1875, Catalpa is a sensational sea-faring, epic one-man saga conceived and performed by Donal O'Kelly with live music by Trevor Knight.
While O'Kelly invites us into his own imagination, Catalpa is largely dependent on ours. The additional use of colored light cues and a fantastic musical score establish the myriad tones in this piece. The stage is bare aside from a white muslin sheet, which O'Kelly brilliantly uses in more ways than one. The crafted language is particularly transfixing with its rhyming stanzas and lyric beats which paint the sea and all its colors.
A solo show demands its audience to trust, suspend belief, listen, and imagine. O'Kelly commands and receives these elements to bring Catalpa alive, and the result is quite astonishing. An expert storyteller, O'Kelly delivers a rich and poignant tale that, apart from its seemingly large scale, is essentially about love; with the dozens of characters aside, what sticks out most are the instances when the characters yearn for it.
Covering the span of a year's voyage at sea, Catalpa invites you to venture upon a mythical life-changing journey that shouldn't be missed. |
FRINGE FIRST WINNER – EDINBURGH THEATRE FESTIVAL
Click here to return
|
