Hot on the heels of St. Patrick’s Day, River Run Centre presents Echoes of Ireland: The Musical on March 18 at 8 pm on the Main Stage.
The production is a collaboration of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Frank McCourt and best-selling author (and brother) Malachy McCourt, with the step dance group, The Magic of Ireland. Known world-wide as storytelling royalty, the brothers tug at heart strings, in this one-of-a-kind tale of comedy and tragedy, as they recount life in the dank streets of Limerick, Ireland and amidst the hustle and bustle of The Big Apple’s Brooklyn.
Based on an earlier dramatic collaboration by the McCourt brothers, Echoes of Ireland is a series of recollections told by a pair of young immigrants.
Lead actors Jonathan Judge-Russo and Ryan Wesley Gilreath play two rabble-rousing immigrants who stumble into an Irish punk band’s rehearsal thinking they’ve entered a pub. The band members tell them that they are welcome to stay and have a few drinks, provided the brothers regale them with a few stories.
And so begins a series of vignettes, punctuated with song and dance interludes by musical collaborator, Michael O’Grady and The Magic of Ireland.
Frank McCourt is the author of Angela’s Ashes, a 1996 memoir about the family’s upbringing in New York City and Limerick, Ireland. Malachy McCourt is an actor, politician and writer, whose own memoir, A Monk Swimming – which covered some of the same material as Angela’s Ashes but from the younger brother’s point of view – was also a best seller.
Tickets are available through the box office or online at www.riverrun.ca.
