Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder (director of their recent hit production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal) kicks off Strawdog's 20th Season directing our award-winning acting ensemble in Brian Friel's story of an Irish family living in the shadow of a past that's too glorious to be true, and wrestling with a present too treacherous to navigate. By turns hilarious and heart-breaking, this is the first part of Strawdog's exploration of the theme of dynasty, and it is not to be missed.
In County Donegal in the mid 1970s, the O'Donnell family, a rare example of Irish-Catholic aristocracy, gathers at their family estate on the eve of the clan's youngest daughter's wedding. Haunted by memories and secrets, and pressed by an American academic intent on finding the family's true history, the long-estranged siblings alternately deny and face up to the collapse of their homestead and their personal lives as well.
Brian Friel is one of Ireland's most acclaimed playwrights, with a body of work that includes Dancing at Lughnasa and Faith Healer. Patterned after Chekhov's greatest plays, Aristocrats, is one of if his finest.