“The Rising: The Irish Rebellion of 1916 in song and verse,” 8 p.m. March 18,19,25,26 and 2 p.m. March 20,27. at The Charles A. Brown IceHouse, 56 River St., Bethlehem.
All tickets: $15. By dredit card in advance; cash or check only at the door.
Info: 610-395-7176, www.ckplayers.com
Crowded Kitchen Players will be performing its original play "The Rising: The Irish Rebellion of 1916" for March 18-27 at The IceHouse as part of IceHouse Tonight. “The Rising” is told through poems and songs of the rebellion, contemporary newspaper accounts, speeches, proclamations, letters from the condemned rebels to their loved ones, and, most compellingly, an interview for The New York Times between the journalist/World War I poet, Joyce Kilmer and a young woman, Moira Regan, who was in the General Post Office during the Rising, helping run messages between the rebel forces scattered throughout the city as the battle raged.
Joey Mutis III of The Electric Farm is joining our acting ensemble and will be performing songs of the Rebellion, some of which are not all that familiar, but all which are passionate and colorfully descriptive of the people and dramatic events of that week.
The Rising to overthrow British rule of Ireland lasted six days from the seizing of Dublin’s General Post Office at noon on Easter Monday April 24, 1916 to the end of that week, when its 1,600 Irish volunteers and leaders had either perished or surrendered, and was followed almost immediately by the hasty courts martial and executions of its leaders.
Although the rebellion was crushed by over 20,000 British troops, it inspired a nationwide resolve to free itself from British Parliamentary control, and it led, after further bloodshed, to the establishment of the Republic of Ireland in 1922.
The songs will be performed onstage and woven into the fabric of the show’s narrative. Songs include “Ireland’s Rise,” “Banna Strand,” "Óró, sé do bheatha abhaile",“'The Row in the Town,” “Tri-coloured Ribbon,” “The Parting Glass” and “The Foggy Dew.”
The cast includes Trish Cipoletti, Dan Ferry, Pamela Wallace, Carla Thew, Sharon Ferry, Bruce Brown, Michael Sheridan, Paula Klein, and Colleen Popper.