INTERVIEW: Two perspectives of Brian Friel offered in one show
Photo: Two by Friel at the Irish Repertory Theatre features a performance of The Yalta Game, starring Aidan Redmond and Jenny Leona. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
Brian Friel was a lion of a playwright, someone whose mastery with the English language was unparalleled when considering the greats from the 20th century. Whether it was his Faith Healer or Translations, the shows crafted by Friel throughout his long career are memorable and frequently revived.
The leading interpreter of Friel’s oeuvre is the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City. These past few weeks they have coupled two one-acts by the Irish playwright for an altogether unique evening of romance and drama, dubbed Two by Friel.
Lovers: Winners was penned 50 years ago and follows Mag and Joe, two young lovers who talk about life, love and final exams. Narrators who are sitting nearby clue the audience in to a much darker, more sorrowful event that takes place the same day as Mag and Joe’s conversation.
The Yalta Game, a relatively recent play receiving its New York premiere, follow Dmitry and Anna, who fall in love while on vacation from their respective spouses. The play is based off The Lady With the Lapdog by Anton Chekhov.
The combined production is directed by Conor Bagley, in his Irish Rep debut, and stars the talents of Phil Gillen, Jenny Leona, Aidan Redmond and Aoife Kelly. Leona is an accomplished actor who has appeared in plays at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theatre for the New City, The Sheen Center and La Mama. On TV, she portrayed Genevieve on A&E’s Unforgettable and has also appeared in a number of film projects.
“I had heard about the production, and I had voiced an interest in it through my agents,” Leona said about her attachment to the Irish Rep production. “And my agents submitted me for it, and that’s how I got through the audition process.”
She responded to Friel’s universal stories and loved how the two one-acts were interestingly paired together.
“I mean, it’s the same playwright, but they’re very different in style,” she said. “But I think what I loved about it, I hadn’t done a play in rep since college, so I also was really excited by the challenge of doing a play in rep.”
Leona plays one of the narrators in Lovers: Winners and the role of Anna in The Yalta Game. It was this role of Anna that she was most interested in during the audition process.
“I really loved … that both characters, Dmitry and Anna, take you through this timeline of their love story,” she said. “You don’t see it very often in theater, and I thought the language was just gorgeous. It definitely spoke to me. It’s one of those things, it was easy for me to memorize because there was something about it that really felt natural.”
Leona reported having a positive experience with Bagley, who is also a co-producer on the Tony-winning Broadway musical Once on This Island.
“Conor is a lot of fun,” she said. “Aidan, who plays Dmitry, and I spent most of the rehearsal process just the two of us and Conor. And then Phil and Aoife, who play Joe and Mag, were rehearsing separately, so we barely saw each other during the rehearsal process, which was interesting. It’s almost like you forgot that we will eventually also be part of their play, but I think Conor felt very strongly about making sure that the intimacy between characters was honored and that we were given the opportunity really to explore with each other.”
She added about Bagley’s directing: “We spent a lot of time around the table, and Conor did an interesting thing with us. He actually interviewed us as our character, which I don’t think I’ve ever worked with a director that did that. … It really allowed you to step into what that person is, and also it gave me permission personally to imbue Anna with a lot of my own history and feelings. It was just beautiful. It was a very intimate, personal rehearsal process, and it was wonderful that we were able to do that.”
The audience is key for appreciating these two Friel plays, especially Lovers: Winners, in which Leona and Redmond directly address the crowd as narrators. This changing dynamic helps Leona dig deeper into her characters; the journey of discovery apparently never stops.
“I think every day another little piece falls into place for me where it suddenly makes a little more sense and especially with all the direct address,” the actor said. “The audience definitely affects the story of that particular evening because … I really can look into the eyes of the audience members. My performance is altered by the way I see what my words are doing to the person I’m looking at, and it’s just interesting. Like moments that I didn’t realize were funny and charming become more charming because I’ve seen it in the person’s face. I’m informed by the audience every night. It deepens. The longer you do it, the deeper it gets. It’s really well constructed that way.”
Leona has had a blast working for Irish Rep, a legendary institution with a recently remodeled theater complex in Chelsea. The building holds two stages; Two by Friel plays through Dec. 23 in the W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre. A Child’s Christmas in Wales is currently running on the main stage.
“They are legendary, so I actually found it very refreshing that they were so welcoming,” Leona said of Irish Rep. “I didn’t feel like I had to continue to prove myself. I feel like I had been given the opportunity, and now I was invited as part of the family. They definitely treat you like family. It’s been a very touching experience to work with the company.”
The show has received positive reviews and strong word of mouth. That, coupled with a relatively small theater, has meant Two by Friel is completely sold out through the rest of its run. That’s good news for Leona and company.
“What I love seeing is the large age range of the audience members we’ve been getting,” she said. “It’s been wonderful to have a full house because we really do feed off that energy. I know in the first play so much changes depending on how vocal and how playful the audience is, and then when Aidan and I go on for the next act, we’ve been informed by what we saw in the first act. And also we have to reintroduce them to a very different play, so having more people is always better. I feel like the audience gives each other permission to really respond. It’s been really a wonderful experience. Such an intimate little play and to really have people wanting to come see it and allowing to make themselves vulnerable by allowing us to use them so openly, it’s really quite wonderful.”
Leona has wanted to be in the spotlight since she was 4 years old. As a young girl, she loved performing to entertain herself, and then as she grew older, she learned more about the craft and the history of theater.
“It only became a stronger need to do this with my life the older I got,” Leona said. “Luckily moments like this, being invited to be part of this production, just continue to reaffirm for me that this is absolutely why I do what I do.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Two by Friel, featuring Jenny Leona, plays through Dec. 23 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
