THE APPROACH Opens at Irish Repertory Theatre

The US Premiere of Mark O’Rowe’s The Approach is now officially open at Irish Rep’s W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre. Directed by Conor Bagley, the play will have a limited run through May 10. 

Listen carefully… Three women. Three conversations. As the details of what they share begin to diverge, we realise that a subtle game of survival is being played. Mark O’Rowe’s The Approach explores the inner lives of Anna, Cora, and Denise as they desperately try to make sense of their world.

The cast of The Approach features Carmen M. Herlihy (The Apiary) as Cora, Kate MacCluggage (Left on Tenth) as Denise, and Danielle Ryan (Aristocrats) as Anna. See what the critics are saying…

Roma Torre, New York Stage Review: It takes a great deal of skill to pull off a work that’s as quietly understated as this. The women, interacting in pairs, mostly delve in circular small talk. In lesser hands, the conceit would be a total bore, but the Irish Rep’s minimalist production, directed by Conor Bagley keeps us hooked by planting little clues that allow us to seize on inconsistencies exposing the desperation and lengths the women go to hide their unhappiness.

Marc Miller, Talkin’ Broadway: It’s a miniature: small in cast, production, and running time (an hour ten). So why do so many peculiarities crop up? First, what era are we in? The chatter sounds current, but current events are never raised, no one carries a phone, and when someone’s arranging a future meeting, it’s always, “I’ll call.” (Stephanie Bahniuk’s costumes, attractive in themselves, are no help in pinpointing a time period.) Why does nearly every scene begin with someone entering while someone else is waiting, and an exchange of, “Sorry about that,” “That’s OK”? When the reunited Denise and Anna mention Cora and somberly stop in midthought as though something dreadful happened to her, why is that the last of that? And why is the final scene a replaying of the first, too much of it, with a new beginning–Cora having unaccountably become a famous author–and a new coda? The new dialogue rehashes events in their lives that wouldn’t have happened yet, and the looping around suggests that maybe this whole play is happening in Cora’s mind, or maybe isn’t happening at all, it’s just O’Rowe going on about women’s friendships, the gossamer ramblings blanketing the strong emotions underneath. It’s a jolt of a finish, a trait it shares with Ulster American, its Irish Rep upstairs neighbor.