Academy Award-winner Celeste Holm, Tony Award-winner Fritz Weaver and Tony Award-nominee Donal Donnelly will star in Irish Repertory's dramatic reading of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, running Aug. 15-Sept. 17. Opening night is set for Aug. 20. Irish Rep's Charlotte Moore directs.
Originally the third act dream sequence of Man and Superman, Don Juan has been broken out as its own piece, separate for the 1903 comedy of the sexes of which it was once a part. In Hell, the banished souls have nothing but time and talk, and so Don Juan converses with the Devil on a wide range of subjects with interjections from a woman he once seduced and a man he killed.
Weaver is Don Juan with Donnelly as the Devil and Holm as Dona Ana. James A. Stephens (The Country Boy) plays the Statue.
Holm won her Oscar for "Gentleman's Agreement" while garnering nominations for "All About Eve" and "Come to the Stable." A member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, she created Ado Annie in Oklahoma! and performed in I Hate Hamlet, Love Letters, The Time of Your Life and Shaw's Back to Methuselah. She is also known for playing reporter Liz Embrey opposite Frank Sinatra in Cole Porter's "High Society."
Weaver took home the Tony for Child Play. Other credits include Ring Around the Moon, The Crucible, Love Letters, The Price, Absurd Person Singular and My Fair Lady. Oft appearing in Irish drama and comedy, Donnelly played Shaw himself last summer at Irish Rep in Dear Liar and on tour in the one man show, My Astonishing Self. After beginning his career at Dublin's Gate and moving on to London, Donnelly has done Broadway's Translations, Sherlock's Last Case, Ghetto and Dancing at Lughnasa.
Tickets are $35-$30. Irish Repertory Theatre is located at 132 West 22nd Street. For reservations, call (212) 727-2737. Irish Repertory Theatre is on the web at http://www.irishrepertorytheatre.com.
-- By Christine Ehren
