I Knock At the Door and Pictures in the Hallway are presented in repertory under the direction of Stuart Vaughan, who re-creates his original Broadway staging of the plays for the New Globe run.
Shyre adapted the works from Irish novelist Sean O'Casey's stream-of-consciousness autobiographies, which employ the use of a character named Johnny Cassidy as a stand-in for O'Casey. The works detail O'Casey's/Cassidy's childhood and Dublin upbringing.
The cast of Broadway veterans for the New Globe staging includes Salome Jens and Gil Rogers as well as John FitzGibbon, Grant Kretchik, Nancy McNulty and Craig Rising. Set and lighting design is by Bart Healy.
"I Knock at the Door," according to press notes, "brings Johnny Cassidy into the world – the world of 19th Century Dublin, with its horse-drawn trams and outdoor toilets, its pubs and parades, its Catholics versus its Protestants. Where did the boy with the diseased eyes find the pluck, guts, and humor to shoulder his way into productive life? We get to know the mother who stood guard over him, the scholar father who died so young but left his books, the doctors who helped the boy, and those who greatly hindered him. "
"Pictures in the Hallway, brings us the lively tale of an adolescent Johnny initiated into the rough and tumble of Dublin's adult world by a series of life-changing events," press notes state. "First job -- in his early teens, because it's a fatherless home where every penny counts; first politics -- in a society where even the singing of certain songs was a punishable offense; first sex – a reaching out for freedom in a world still gripped by repressive morals and sexual fear. O'Casey shares his joys, pain, discoveries and hopes as he traverses these rites of passage. As we vicariously join him, we relive our own initiations." I Knock at the Door and Pictures in the Hallway perform in repertory Wed.-Sun. with both plays performed on Saturdays, from Nov. 24 through Dec. 23.
Tickets are available by phoning (212) 279-4200 or by visiting www.ticketcentral.com. Performances will take place at Theater Three, located at 311 West 43rd Street, in Manhattan.
