Drama Under the Tent at Milwaukee Irish Fest

Irish Fest is this weekend. Serious drama is performed at Milwaukee Irish Fest. (Really) Yes: there is Irish folk music and traditional Irish dancing. (My daughter is performing with Kinsella.) There is  limerick contest. There’s also a contest for freckles. (Another for red hair.) But there’s also theatre.

Theatre under a tent on the Henry Maier “Summerfest” Festival Park works pretty much like one might expect. It's difficult to imagine a venue more challenging for serious drama than a tent on the Summerfest grounds. There is an open atmosphere. People file in and out over the course of a performance. Baselines from bands and chatter from passing attendees can be heard from elsewhere as the play rolls on amidst somewhat crude amplification. Finding the right play for just such an atmosphere is a tricky proposition. A couple of the companies performing this year are offering performances of deep and deeply conversational dramas that should be interesting in the outdoor festival atmosphere.

Milwaukee Irish Arts will be performing its staging of Elaine Murphy’s Little Gem. A recent production by the company had Joan End, Libby Amato and April Paul play three generations of women living in contemporary Dublin. I reviewed a staging of the performance at the Irish Cultural Heritage Center for the Shehperd-Express online this past May.

It’s a touching drama of three women told from three different perspectives. There was a real intimacy on the stage of the ICHC. The same drama will take-on a different quality performed under a tent at Irish Fest will give the drama more of a casual atmosphere. Audiences filter in and out as three women pour their hearts out through three talented actresses.

There’s some profoundly personal stuff being delivered here in and amidst the baselines of various Irish bands and the passing chatter of other festival attendees. You may not hear everything. You may not feel the full power of it all, but casual drama of three people going through a difficult time in their lives makes for an altogether different kind of experience at an outdoor festival. The drama takes on a completely different quality in a festival atmosphere juxtaposed against the visceral impressions of so many other people.

Little Gem alternates with performances of Sebastian Barry’s Fred and Jane...a conversation between two nuns about a life in service of the church, which should be an interesting fit for the Fest.

The Bangor Drama Club isn’t from Maine. It’s actually a group from Northern Ireland. In addition to a space in Bangor, Ireland, they have a group that  tours around the world. They’re bringing a few shorts to the fest this year.

Brian Friehl’s Lovers is a pairing of one-acts that will be performed in alternation throughout the festival. Winners has a couple of teenaged lovers studying on a hill. They’re trying to study, but they’re distracted. They’re expecting a baby. Kind of an interesting dialogue to see under a tent. That short alternates with Losers--a drama about a couple of middle-aged lovers who aren’t quite so lucky. Both Winners and Losers alternate with the group’s staging of A Galway Girl by Geraldine Aron. That drama has a couple reminiscing about an entire life together.

Three generations of woman and three pairs of lovers come to inhabit a stage tucked away amidst the mead, the ale, the raspberry mead, the dancing and folksongs at Irish Fest. Here’s the schedule:


FRIDAY
08/18/17
(partly sunny. High: 78° Low: 66°)

5:00 pm:
Lovers: Winners presented by Bangor Drama Club

6:15 pm:
Fred and Jane presented by Milwaukee Irish Arts

7:15 pm:
A Galway Girl presented by Bangor Drama Club

8:00 pm:
Little Gem presented by Milwaukee Irish Arts


SATURDAY
08/19/17
(partly sunny. High: 77° Low: 66°)

1:00 pm:
A Galway Girl presented by Bangor Drama Club

2:00 pm:
Fred and Jane presented by Milwaukee Irish Arts

3:00 pm:
Lovers: Winners presented by Bangor Drama Club

6:30 pm:
A Galway Girl presented by Bangor Drama Club

7:15 pm:
Little Gem presented by Milwaukee Irish Arts


SUNDAY
08/20/17
(partly sunny. High: 80° Low: 66°)

2:00 pm:
Lovers: Winners presented by Bangor Drama Club

3:30 pm:
Fred and Jane presented by Milwaukee Irish Arts

4:30 pm:
A Galway Girl presented by Bangor Drama Club

5:30 pm:
Lovers: Winners presented by Bangor Drama Club

6:45 pm:
Little Gem presented by Milwaukee Irish Arts


All of the above performances take place in the Theatre Pavilion at Meyer Festival Park. For more information, visit Milwaukee Irish Fest online.