Minneapolis’s acclaimed Guthrie Theatre will return to Washington University’s Edison Theatre this Saturday with the intimate drama Molly Sweeney, the troupe’s fourth collaboration with Tony Award-winning Irish playwright Brian Friel. The special one-night-only performance is sponsored by the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series.
Set in Friel’s mythical village of Ballybeg, Ireland, Molly Sweeney describes an ill-fated quest to restore a blind woman’s sight. Molly, who lost her vision in infancy, now leads a contented life. When Frank, her passionate, impulsive husband urges her to undergo a new sight-restoration procedure, Molly reluctantly agrees. The story unfolds through a trio of interweaving monologues in which Molly, Frank, and Molly’s once-famous eye surgeon, Mr. Rice, describe the anticipation leading up to the operation, the operation itself, and the ultimately tragic consequences of success.
Molly Sweeney is directed by Joe Dowling, who also brought the Guthrie’s iconoclastic version of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Edison Theatre last May. Dowling is perhaps best known for his association with The Abbey Theater, the national theater of Ireland. In 1970, he founded The Young Abbey, Ireland’s first theater and education group and in 1973 became artistic director of The Peacock Theater, The Abbey’s second stage. In 1976 he assumed artistic directorship of the Irish Theater Company, The Abbey’s national touring troupe, and two years later, at the age of 29, became the youngest artistic director in Abbey history.
Dowling left The Abbey in 1985 to become artistic and managing director of The Gaity, Dublin’s oldest commercial theater, where he formed The Gaity School of Acting, widely regarded as Ireland’s finest drama school. Since 1990 he has directed extensively in North America.
The great English director Sir Tyrone Guthrie founded the Guthrie Theater in 1963. In addition to touring main stage theater productions, the Guthrie performs contemporary pieces at The Guthrie Lab and runs educational programs that reach over 90,000 students every year.
The performance begins at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17. Tickets are $25 and are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, or through MetroTix, (314) 534-1111. Student and faculty discounts are available. Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For further information, call (314) 935-6543.

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