Some plays just get better with age. An Irish Carol, now in its 14th year at DC’s Keegan Theatre, is one of those gems. When I first saw Matthew J. Keenan’s holiday play back in 2017, I was impressed by the clever updating of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with modern stand-ins for Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, and other broadly sketched characters. This time, it was the profound humanity that stood out.
It’s Christmas Eve 2008 at Dennehy’s Pub in Dublin City. The owner, David, wonderfully played by Kevin Adams, lumbers through the well-worn premises, shouldering decades of accumulated pain and anger. His basset-hound expression speaks to a life of disappointment.
Only a couple of “regulars,” the good-natured Jim (Michael Replogle) and the rapscallion Frank (Timothy H. Lynch), come by for a drink. Most others have been driven off by David’s foul disposition and the real-life recession caused in part by the UK’s wobbly banking loans that year. With a combination of lively banter and salty humor, the lads try to coax David out of his ever-deepening funk, to little avail.
No one in David’s diminished world is unscathed by his churlishness. He barks at patrons but saves his most mean-spirited bile for his bartender Bartek, played with exquisite sensitivity and open-hearted pluck by Taylor Witt. A Polish immigrant grateful for his job, Bartek endures David’s harsh treatment with a good-natured belief that his boss cloaks his essential decency with outward disregard. Nonetheless, Bartek is momentarily stunned when David orders him to report for work at “half-nine” on Christmas Day to prepare lunch for expected guests. Never mind that Bartek has a wife and daughter, and the child’s seventh birthday happens to fall on December 25. After half a beat, the bartender submits to his boss’ demand.
Several other characters make brief appearances, each one rebuffed while revealing a bit more about David’s character. His brother Michael (played alternately by Mike Kozemchak and Theo Hadjimichael) comes by to entreat David to close the bar and join his family for a festive Christmas Eve meal. He hasn’t seen his nephews in years, and now a third child is on the way. As usual, David declines, claiming he can’t leave his business, though the bar is almost empty.
The lively young couple Simon (Jared H. Graham) and Anna (played alternately by Sarah Chapin and Brigid Wallace Harper) burst in to announce their engagement. Simon, a former employee and a budding entrepreneur, is brimming with ideas to turn Dennehy’s into another hip watering spot in yuppifying Dublin. When David resists, Anna, a special education teacher, blames Simon for his naked ambition.
The final guest, Richard (Daniel Lyons and Matt J. Bannister) gets to the heart of David’s fierce anger. A former Dennehy’s employee who stole David’s long-time girlfriend from the boss, Richard bears a missive he promised to deliver to David from his now-departed wife. Like the transformation of Scrooge wrought by Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Past, we know where this is going. Anger and remorse slowly lift from David’s shoulders, and his bedraggled countenance reignites with warmth as he reads the letter to himself.
Redemption sometimes appears in the unlikeliest of places. The age-old Dennehy’s Pub, masterfully created by Scenic Designer (and playwright) Matthew J. Keenan and Set Dressing Designer Cindy Landrum Jacobs, has seen its share of unruly mockery and drunken fisticuffs over the years. Under the wise direction of Mark A. Rhea and a talented cast of lovable miscreants and young dreamers, it becomes a place of grace. An Irish Carol offers up a lively mix of passion and wit to deliver its message of forgiveness and hope. It ends just as Dickens would wish.
Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
An Irish Carol plays through December 31, 2024, at the Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church Street NW, Washington, DC. Tickets ($69, with discounts available for patrons under 25 and over 62) may be purchased online, by phone at 202-265-3767, or in person at the Keegan Theatre Box Office, which opens on the day of the show one hour prior to the performance.
Cast and production team credits and bios are here (scroll down).
COVID Safety: Masks are optional but encouraged. Keegan’s Health and Safety policies are here.
