Ciarán O'Reilly (O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape at Irish Rep) directs the Off-Broadway production of the early O'Neill play, running through April 8 at Irish Rep's home at 132 W. 22nd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues.
The tale of two brothers in love with the same woman will officially open Feb. 26. The 1920 play was O'Neill's first full-length work.
According to Irish Rep notes, "Beyond the Horizon is a harrowing, heart-wrenching domestic tragedy, set on a farm in Massachusetts where two brothers, Robert, a dreamer and poet who longs to go to sea and seek the promise that lies beyond the horizon, and Andrew, a more practical man, whose desire extends no farther than the family farm, find themselves in love with their neighbor, Ruth. Just as Robert is about to depart, however, it becomes clear that Ruth loves him and not Andrew. So Robert stays at home to run the farm — a job for which he is entirely unsuited — and Andrew takes his place on the sailing ship to discover lands he never dreamed of. It is a decision with irrevocable and tragic consequences."
The production features set design by Hugh Landwehr; co-costume design by Linda Fisher and Jessica Barrios; lighting design by Brian Nason; music and sound design by Ryan Rumery; sound design by M. Florian Stabb; hair and wig design by Robert-Charles Vallance; and props by Deirdre Brennan. April A. Kline is production stage manager; Rebecca C. Monroe is assistant stage manager.
O'Neill is a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a Nobel Prize laureate. His plays also include Anne Christie, Ah, Wilderness!, The Iceman Cometh, Hughie, Desire Under the Elms, Strange Interlude, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day's Journey Into Night and Mourning Becomes Electra, among others. For tickets and additional information, visit www.irishrep.org.
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Co-founded by producing director Ciarán O'Reilly and artistic director Charlotte Moore, The Irish Repertory Theatre opened in September 1988 with Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. The mission of the theatre was and remains to "bring works by Irish and Irish American masters and contemporary playwrights to American audiences; to provide a context for understanding the contemporary Irish American experience; and to encourage the development of new works focusing on the Irish and Irish American experience, as well as a range of other cultures."