INTERVIEW: This holiday season, you’re invited to a lively ‘Dead’ party
Photo: The Dead, 1904 features, from left, Karen Killeen, Una Clancy and Mary Beth Peil. Photo courtesy of Carol Rosegg / Provided by Print Shop PR with permission.
There is such a thing as a Christmas miracle. This holiday season, the ever-vaunted Irish Repertory Theatre has brought back its December staple, The Dead, 1904, a unique adaptation of the James Joyce novella that plays not at the Irish Rep’s typical theater, but instead at the American Irish Historical Society across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These tony surroundings allow audience members and cast members the chance to feel as if they have been transported back more than 100 years to a Christmas dinner on the Feast of the Epiphany in Dublin, hosted by the Morkan sisters and their niece, Mary Jane.
In this year’s production, Mary Jane is play by Karen Killeen, who is making her New York City acting debut in The Dead, 1904.
“I’m just happy to be involved,” Killeen said in a recent phone interview. “It’s been so wonderful as a first gig in the city, so I’m just so grateful and so happy to be there. … I finished my MFA in May, and then I happened to do a reading at the Irish Rep a couple months prior to that. I was called in for an audition, did an audition, did a callback the regular way, you could say.”
The 2024-2025 edition of The Dead, 1904 has many newcomers to the cast, including Killeen, but they are joined by veterans who have performed at the American Irish Historical Society before.
“It’s been such an interesting mix of people who are The Dead veterans who have been there since the start,” she said. “Most of us this time are new, so it’s such an interesting blend of experience, and how things are different this time and how things are the same, which has been a really interesting thing.”
Killeen is pinching herself because she knows that she’s launching a New York theatrical career in one of the most unique ways possible. She gets to interact with guests as they mingle around the historic house. She gets to dine with audience members as a full meal is served on this Feast of the Epiphany. She gets to travel back in time and across the Pond, returning to Ireland for this most Irish of tales.
“It’s such a gift,” the actor said. “I’m cherishing it because I don’t know when this will happen again. It’s such a joy to see people come in in their finest clothes, and they’re here for a good time. You can see in their faces their responses to certain moments. You can see what certain songs or certain things mean to them. Usually in a play you can barely see the audience’s faces half the time, so it’s a beautiful relationship. You also hear their stories. We have an actors’ table, so I get to sit beside two guests that get to sit at the table with us. And you always meet the most interesting people that come from all over to see this play and have a relationship with the story, so it’s a very, very special thing.”
In the narrative, Killeen plays the character of Mary Jane, the niece of the elderly Kate and Julia Morkan. They welcome many guests throughout the night, and they enjoy some good music, dancing and spirits. That is until the joy abates, and a feeling of dread sinks in.
“I think I see a lot of myself in her,” Killeen said about her role. “I see a lot of yearning in her. Unfortunately the circumstances of the family, I imagine, weigh quite heavily on her shoulders, even if it’s not explicitly said in the story. There isn’t a huge amount written about Mary Jane or even about her thoughts and feelings. We see that she’s running the household. … The Catholic Church is changing the way women are allowed to participate in church. So it’s a changing world, and it’s a changing time for women. And I think Mary Jane is probably not getting a lot of time to herself to think. I think she’s trying to keep the ship sailing is my view of her, and I think even if that’s not explicitly said in the piece, I think that’s an undercurrent that I use to drive me through the piece every night.”
There is a script to The Dead, 1904; it comes courtesy of Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz, with Ciarán O’Reilly directing. But even with a script, the actors are tasked with adding some improvisation.
“Some people that were veterans of the show, they said, ‘Get ready to do some improvising in character,'” Killeen said. “At the time, I was like, ‘It’s one thing saying the lines, but improvising is a totally different thing.’ There’s something about the beautiful building, there’s something about the costumes and everybody going along with it that gives you the skills to improv. It’s kind of wonderful what can come out of a moment, so that makes every show different. It’s such fun. Sometimes [the audience members] really go seriously with it as if they’re part of the story, and then some others are kind of doing a bit of an elbow, wink wink. ‘Are you really going to do this all again at 8 o’clock? Are you going to eat this dinner again at 8 o’clock?’ It’s like two extremes of an audience situation, but you have to be ready for anything essentially.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Dead, 1904, featuring Karen Killeen, continues through Sunday, Jan. 5, at the American Irish Historical Society in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
