Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney is an exquisite story from a masterful storyteller - a highly entertaining play that delivers laughs while posing thoughtful questions that will stay with you for some time. The story centers on the luminous and joyful Molly (Jennifer Porter), who has been blind since infancy. Molly’s perpetually unemployed but ever enthusiastic husband, Frank (Mike Iveson) has undertaken, as his latest hobby - in a string of foolhardy and failed hobbies - the restoration of Molly’s sight. In his quest to accomplish this, he enlists the help of Mr. Rice (Dana Packard), a once celebrated eye surgeon whose wrecked marriage has brought him to the wilds of northwest Donegal, and for whom operations on Molly’s eyes offer not only a chance to restore his once brilliant career, but his damaged self-esteem. As for Molly, she is being offered the chance to have her sight restored. “What has she to lose?” Mr. Rice muses as he agrees to perform the operation.
“Brian Friel’s beautiful and dazzling Molly Sweeney is one of those marvelous onion plays…As you peel away each plump and juicy layer, another layer emerges underneath and yet another…What a marvelous play this is! See it - wander in it and wonder at it.” – New York Post
“Mr. Friel writes like a dream.” – The New York Times
“Brian Friel’s writing has such vitality and warmth.” – London Sunday Times