Health and Safety Guidelines ITC - Irish Theatre of Chicago is committed to making every possible effort to ensure the health and safety of our artists, audiences, and staff. With the guidance of Actors' Equity Association, the advice of public health experts, our peers in the performing arts community, and COVID-19 Safety Protocols, we will work to safeguard and nurture the wellness of our staff, audiences, and performers. These protocols are subject to change based on evolving guidance from Actors' Equity Association, the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, and the CDC.

- Vaccinations. All guests will need to be fully vaccinated with an FDA-authorized vaccine. Please present your vaccination card (electronic photos and copies are acceptable) AND an I.D. when you arrive at the theater.

If you forget proof of vaccination, ITC will reschedule your tickets at no charge.

- Masking. Masking is currently required for vaccinated audiences and front of house staff.

Any patrons or guests arriving without an appropriate face covering will be provided a disposable face mask.

- In coordination with the staff at Chopin Theatre, ITC will ensure that all high-touch surfaces are cleaned regularly. There will also be hand sanitization available.

REVIEWS

Darkness and light: A blind woman regains some sight, but loses her world in Molly Sweeney - "Inspired in part by Oliver Sacks's 1995 New Yorker essay "To See and Not to See," Brian Friel's 1996 play in monologues, Molly Sweeney, shares Sacks's ability to translate the medical into the metaphysical. It's also a natural successor to Friel's 1979 Faith Healer, which also unfolds as three monologues involving two men and one woman.

The healer in Molly Sweeney is an alcoholic opthamologist, Paddy Rice-once a rising star in the field, but now divorced and in exile in Ballybeg, the fictional town in Donegal that serves as the setting for many of Friel's plays. The title character is a woman blind since the age of ten months, whom Rice believes he can restore to at least some semblance of sight. Molly's husband, Frank, who, in Rice's sneering phrase, has all "the indiscriminate enthusiasms of the self-taught," sees his wife as another project of sorts, perhaps not that far removed from his abortive attempt to raise Iranian goats on a remote Irish island. The key theme threading through all their stories, which comes through with clean and sorrowful precision in Siiri Scott's staging for Irish Theatre of Chicago, is that seeing someone clearly requires far more than ophthalmic intervention. Carolyn Kruse's Molly, raised by a judge father and a mother who was in and out of mental institutions, never attended a school for the blind, but she seems happy enough working at a health club as a massage therapist; her sense of touch and smell have given her a way into the world that is manageable. But persuaded by Frank (Matthew Isler), and prodded by Rice (Robert Kauzlaric), she agrees to the operation.

It's not Molly's blindness that's the problem; it's that the men around her cannot see her as much more than a problem to be solved. Even her beloved father, who gave her a love of flowers by helping her "see" the garden behind their house, failed her by trying to keep her to himself, molding her in his ideals. Rice says of Molly before the surgery, "What has she got to lose?" As it turns out, almost everything.

In some ways, Friel's story is similar to Daniel Keyes's novel Flowers for Algernon, though the subject of that story is a young man with intellectual disabilities, not blindness. But in the same way that Keyes's Charlie Gordon finds his relationships with others shifting irrevocably once an experimental surgery (temporarily) raises his IQ, Molly finds that Rice's operation has subtracted more from her world than it's given. The Molly at the end of the play is far removed from the woman who, the night before the operation, dances exuberantly around the friends gathered in her house, or the one who helps us understand the pure joy of swimming.

Kruse's Molly is the sympathetic heart of the show, as Friel intended. But as the three come closer and closer to understanding what has happened to Molly (and in Rice and Frank's cases, their culpability and selfishness), a sense of clamminess, aching loss, and regret pervades the story, with flashes of sharp-elbowed wit and poetry threaded throughout. Kauzlaric lays bare the self-loathing that seems to seep out of Rice's pores right along with the booze, while Isler's Frank looks even more little-boy-lost at the end than at the beginning. Jesse Baldinger's set in the Chopin basement theater places curvilinear gray rock walls with benches around the stage. The characters are trapped in these ancient battlements, unable to fully connect with each other, or to fully understand how hope turned to regret so terribly fast" - Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader

★★★★ "Are things as they appear? This is a question that has haunted mankind since , well, probably day 1! The Irish Theatre of Chicago, as its first "post-Covid" production has chosen a story that will possibly answer this question. Written by Brian Friel, a master story teller, "Molly Sweeney" tells us the story of this lass who at a very young age lost her sight and lived in a "sightless world". She could see shadows and some light, but for the most part, not faces or colors or things. She has lived her life through sound, touch, taste and smell. But, is that enough?

When Molly's hopeful husband and an ambitious doctor propose restoring her sight through two major operations, everyone begins to realize that things may not be exactly as they appear. The story is told in an unusual way. Directed by Siiri Scott, the three actors appear on a set (Jessie Baldinger) that is more of a series of spaces divided by stone walls and wooden fencing. Each of the actors, has their own space, where each one tells us their version of what was done. On the far left, is The Doctor , Mr. Rice ( played with great power by Robert Kauzlaric). Hearing his stories of the events allow us to see the pride that he felt in taking Molly to a place she could only have dreamed about. In the center of the stage, Molly ( played to perfection by Carolyn Kruse) and in the far right , for the audience, Matthew Isler as husband Frank Sweeney.

We hear about a medical miracle. We hear it from every angle of the people who are involved, and what we learn is that what one thinks should be, might not be. What we believe to be true, may not be true. I will not tell you more except to let you know that this is storytelling at its finest and even with the Irish brogues ( which were very well done) the dialogue was understandable.

The Irish Theatre of Chicago does their plays at The Chopin Theatre on Division/Milwaukee Ave./Ashland Ave., one of Chicago's well known "six-corner" areas. This play is done in the lower level and the seating is composed of some of the comfiest chairs I have ever had the good fortune to sit in for a play that is over two hours in length ( with a 15 minute intermission). The chairs are antiques and some have armrests, others are highly padded, so you will have no problem relaxing and watching this wonderful story" - Alan Breshoff, AroundTheTownChicago.com

Review: Molly Sweeney at Irish Theatre Examines the Difference Between Seeing and Understanding -"Molly Sweeney is an independent middle-aged woman who lives in Donegal. She has a job, a husband, friends, social activities, and she loves to swim in the sea. She has been completely blind since she was an infant. She's content with her life, however, until two men-each with his own self-interest-intrude and persuade her to undergo surgery to gain her vision.

Molly Sweeney, the cleverly written play by Brian Friel, tells Molly's story in a moving series of interwoven monologs by three people. Irish Theatre of Chicago is staging the play now in the manner suggested by the playwright: Each character inhabits their own space on stage and remains there throughout the performance; they don't interact, even though they may seem to be carrying on a conversation. Siiri Scott's sure direction keeps the static setting dynamic and her cast of three fine actors works within it to tell this melancholy story.
Molly (Carolyn Kruse) begins with a charming monologue about learning about flowers, their textures and scents, from her father. He was teaching her to learn about the world through tactile experience. Molly is enthusiastic and vivacious in telling her story. Her husband Frank (Matthew Isler) is unemployed, and always looking for a new cause or a profitable gig. An auto-didact, he discovers new topics to read up on and quote at length to anyone who will listen.
Molly and Frank have only been married a few years. Frank decides that Molly's life will finally be complete if she gains her sight; he reads about all aspects of vision to find a way to help her.

Frank learns that a certain Mr. Rice (Robert Kauzlaric) who lives in nearby Ballybeg was at one time a world-renowned eye surgeon and now practices at a small hospital. He visits Rice, bringing along his huge file of information about blindness, which he believes that Mr. Rice could benefit from reviewing. He prevails upon him to see Molly. When Rice examines Molly, he finds she has cataracts on both eyes plus other vision conditions.

Rice is at first reluctant to take Molly's case because few such surgeries are ever successful. However, he begins to see that this unusual cataract surgery, if successful, could be a way to resuscitate his practice and his career. Despite Molly's uncertainty, she goes along with the plans of the two men.
Act one leads up to the first surgery. As act two begins, her bandages are removed. Is it a medical miracle or will the patient find her new life more disturbing? The play is a thoughtful consideration of the difference between seeing and understanding. The newly sighted person must comprehend the world in a new way.

Jessica Baldinger's rustic scenic design suggests the seaside location and Smooch Medina's sensitive lighting design is a dramatic enhancement for the setting.

Playwright Friel says that Molly's story was inspired in part by Oliver Sacks' essay "To See and Not See," published in his book, An Anthropologist on Mars. The essay concerns a man who was blind from early childhood, but was able to recover some of his sight after surgery, with disturbing results.

Molly Sweeney is sometimes compared to Friel's play, The Faith Healer, in which four characters tell their stories as monologs on a bare stage. The Faith Healer was last staged in Chicago in 2013 by the Den Theatre, and, memorably, at the Irish American Heritage Center in 1999" - Nancy Bishop, ThirdCoastReview.com

Irish Theater of Chicago Presents MOLLY SWEENEY - "Playwright Brian Friel has brought countless shows to the stage. Molly Sweeney was one of his last, which debuted for the first time in 1994. The show, as you may have guessed, is about Molly Sweeney. Molly is an Irish woman, who has been blind since infancy - over 40 years. Her husband, Frank Sweeney, convinces her to meet with an ambitious doctor, Mr. Rice, and have surgery to restore her eyesight. What this play teaches us, through the lens (no pun intended) of these three characters, is that sometimes things can be too good to be true, and there are unexpected consequences to Molly's medical miracle. But there is also growth.

Carolyn Kruse, a member of the Irish Theater of Chicago, brings life and animation to Molly Sweeney. Playing the title character, she evokes emotion, and able to beautifully describe how a blind person sees the world. Their sight isn't visual, rather it's tactile. Matthew Isler, another member of the Irish Theater of Chicago, who plays Molly's husband Frank, brings wit, humor and lightness, which this dramatic story needs for balance. Initially you get the sense that Frank is just pushy, and wants Molly to have this surgery so he can have a simpler life. By the end of the story, you realize he loves her, and he loves life and he just wants to enjoy it to the fullest, and he wants the same for Molly.
Mr. Rice, played by Robert Kauzlaric, another member of the Irish Theater of Chicago, gives us the most growth in the play. He is struggling personally and professionally when he meets Molly. Through helping her regain her sight, he regains his own vision of his life, and just like Molly, he starts to see the world in a new way. But, both Molly and Mr. Rice regress when Molly's newfound sight doesn't last. Molly's zesty, happy attitude is destroyed, Mr. Rice is left questioning his career and his place, and both feel lost. One has to apologize and walk away, while the other has to figure out yet another new world.
With only 3 actors, who are on stage the entire time, they have to give it their all to hold the audience captive. This ensemble most definitely does that. The acting was incredible and the Irish accents were spot on. The intimacy and quirkiness of the Chopin Theater was perfect for this moody plot. The set, costumes, lighting and music were all very simple, but worked for the story. The ending is left open, and with many questions. This is definitely not my preferred way for a show to end - where you are left saying "what?". But I think that was Brian Friel's goal - to make the audience think about what in life we should be thankful for, what we take for granted and what we can live without." - Sarah Meyer, SplashMagazine.com