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Andrew Bennett as "Foley"
Courtesy The Corn Exchange

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities & Richard Wakely Present the Corn Exchange Production of...

FOLEY

By Michael West

Starring Andrew Bennett
Directed by Annie Ryan
Music by Vincent Doherty

Showing Friday, May 9, 8:15 p.m. and Saturday, May 10, at 8 p.m.
Culbreth Theatre

Directed by American ex-patriot Annie Ryan, with music by Vincent Doherty, this one-man show features Abbey actor Andrew Bennett, narrator of the film Angela’s Ashes, who was nominated Best Actor for his role as Foley at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2001).The play concerns a man who is the last of his family, among the last Protestants in the Republic of Ireland, “the end point of all that evolution and fruit cake.”  It’s taken Foley his whole life to realize that “your inheritance is not the things that come down to you, it’s the things you can’t get rid of.”  He attempts to recall his life for us, to set things straight.  Variety Magazine called Michael West’s treatment a  “delightful” monologue; The Examiner found it “edgily funny, sometimes disturbing,” displaying a “provocative and brittle intelligence.”

"Christmases were for selective and confined misery. Easter was for reaching out and sharing it with others."

– Foley
Funny and moving – touching spiritual heights, while relishing slap-stick lows – this beautifully crafted meditation on family history and the place of the Anglo-Irish in contemporary Ireland, is described by critic Karen Fricker as “one of the best and most original pieces of new Irish dramatic writing to emerge in several years.”  Foley was named “Best New Play” and Andrew Bennett “Best Actor” by Ireland’s Sunday Tribune (2000), with The Irish Times calling the show “simply superb.”  The Washington Post dubbed the drama “A splendidly crafted act of self-consciousness …an exquisite piece of writing.”  The Belfast Telegraph described the production as “sexy, witty and very sharp,” while Michael Billington of Britain’s The Guardian called it “quite outstanding,” meriting “Five Stars.” Says Thelma Good of Edinburgh.com: “If you love to have well crafted stories told to you by a voice rich in its timbre and an actor who moves you with his charm Foley will transport you.” 

Playwright Michael West; Director Annie Ryan
Left: Playwright Michael West
Right: Director Annie Ryan
Foley premiered at the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, was subsequently performed at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in August 2000, and was transferred to the Hampstead Theatre, London, in November 2001.  The show comes to Virginia after its North American Premiere at New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre.  

A panel discussion – sponsored by the Forum for Contemporary Thought at UVA – with playwright Michael West, actor Andrew Bennett, and a writer on culture and drama – will follow performances of Foley.  

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