For Immediate Release: November 10, 2005
Media Contact: Amy Masterman, Allens Lane Theater, 215.248.0546

Shadow of a Gunman is a classic play by one of the greatest Irish dramatists of the 20th century, Sean O’Casey. A delightful cast of Irish characters struggles through tenement life and “the Troubles” in an evening of uproarious comedy and bone-chilling catastrophe, where poets, dreamers and terrorists collide to create an unlikely hero. The play is a co-production by Allens Lane Theater and The Irish Repertory Theatre of Philadelphia. It opens at Allens Lane Theater on November 18.

Director John Gallagher believes the play is relevant in today’s world of violence, oppression and terrorism. “Sean O’Casey was a master storyteller who viewed things through his incredible memory and his explosive imagination,” says Gallagher. “He was there when the hated Black and Tans raided the tenements. He saw kids scavenging the ruins to steal half-charred timber for firewood. He was part of a world where dancing, drinking and riotous humor were used to deny hopelessness. O’Casey saw the triumph and tragedy of it all.”

The cast includes Gene D’Alessandro (Donal Davoren), Scott Robertson (Seamus Sheilds), Steve Gulick (Maguire, Mr. Gallogher), McKeever (Mulligan), Melissa Lynch (Minnie Powell), Doug Greene (Tommy Owens, Black and Tan #2), Kate Danaher (Mrs. Henderson), Gloria Salmansohn (Mrs. Grigson), John Cannon (Adolphus Grigson), Dean Patrick Carvin (Black and Tan #1).

Shadow of a Gunman opens at Allens Lane Theater on November 18 and runs through December 4. Show times are Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 6pm. There will be an opening reception following the performance on November 18. Tickets are $15 for general admission. Reservations are encouraged.

Season Subscriptions to Allens Lane Theater are still available for $45 for the remaining four plays of the season. In addition to Shadow of a Gunman, there will be Psychopathia Sexualis by John Patrick Shanley, Eyes of the American by Samm-Art Williams and The Beginning of August by Tom Donaghy.

Audience members are invited to bring food and beverages to enjoy before the show. Free off-street parking is available. Allens Lane Theater is located at Allens Lane and McCallum Street in the West Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. For more information or to make reservations, go to www.allenslane.org or call 215-248-0546.

INFORMATION ON SEAN O’CASEY
Playwright Sean O’Casey, a child of the Dublin slums, was born in 1880 to a Protestant family. As a young man he was active in various social movements and in the rebellions for Irish independence. In his early forties, while continuing to support himself as a laborer, he wrote what are considered his masterworks. Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars premiered at Dublin’s famed Abbey Theatre to great acclaim. These grim, satiric and often violent tragicomedies dealt with many aspects of the Irish movement for independence and were not always kind in their depiction of the Irish people. His later works were filled with symbolism and fantasy and were infused with the evangelical view that became central to the rest of O’Casey’s life. His six-volume autobiography is considered to be his finest work after his self-imposed exile from Ireland in 1926.

Renowned New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson noted that O’Casey “wrote the most glorious English of his era – the English nearest in color and strength to the Elizabethan… He had the moral courage of an idealist. Whatever his religious ideas may have been, I think God had reason to be proud of Sean O’Casey.”

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