Although the theatre is dark on Mondays, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre has been honoring St. Patrick this month with its run of The Mai, winner of the 1994 Dublin Theatre Festival Best New Irish Play Award, by Irish playwright Marina Carr. The Mai runs through March 22.

The play is set in a lakehouse in western Ireland, where a daughter, two grumpy sisters, two eccentric aunts, and an old, opium-smoking grandmother gather to advise, console, condemn, and reminisce with the title character, whose philandering husband has returned after an absence of many years. The title character is named after a mythological Irish mother who destroyed her own young.

According to Milwaukee Rep spokesperson Allison Dall-Knox, the production is "doing pretty well... it's selling and the audiences are really enjoying it."

The production had its American premiere in October at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., starring Myra Carter (Three Tall Women)and Katherine Borowitz (film The World According to Garp) and was directed by McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann.

Edward Morgan directs one man and seven women in the Milwaukee production. All the characters speak in an authentic Dublin accent. One of the actresses in the show is also serving as its dialect coach. For tickets or more information about The Mai, please refer to Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.

--By Blair Glaser