Irish Classical Theatre Company

Classical and contemporary works in the round. A solid choice for your evening or matinee theater needs. It is pricey... But usually very good work.

Great in general. Volunteer staff is just a little disorganized.

Great space; you can see anywhere you sit. Thought-provoking plays. Enjoy myself each time I've gone.

Happily, I collect another theater, the Irish Classical Theater, again in Buffalo. I loved that I could buy a front row seat minutes before the show started. I also loved the fact that the show had two curtains today, one at three and one at eight. I decided to see the matinee. The lobby felt warm as a cheerful sunshine warmed the wood floor boards. We enjoyed cold cans of Guinness stout and poured a second can into a sippy cup to take into the theater. It is Irish Classical Theater, and what's more classical than a cold Guinness stout? "The Awful Truth" became not one but three films. Of the three versions, only one version still exists, the version with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne The play Arthur Rickman wrote never saw the stage, and existed in an archive of the New York Public Library. So many treasures await discovery inside that beautiful Manhattan building. Which is a surprising idea because one might suppose librarians would just know all the contents kept safe inside the library walls. To be honest, it takes great amounts of money to catalog the papers donated to libraries that maintain archives. Fortunato Pezzimenti, a director on the staff of the theater found the manuscript in 2011, and finally brought it to the stage this month. He awaited for the right moment for seven years, a long time even in the slow world of publishing. I read the synopsis of the film. It bore no resemblance to the play. I think I am glad that the two diverged. I think the writer of Broadway plays captured a quality of character that couldn't make it to the silver screen. Lucy couldn't be a force of nature on the silver screen. In a play, Lucy could be freely represented as the force of nature she was driven to become by the drives of her age. At ICT, Lucy played by Diane Curley can stop your thoughts with a change of evening attire. Wait for the gown that becomes a character itself in the final act. What she can accomplish in the hearts of men with a dress, she can double in effect with a spritz of perfume. And then she plays piano. I would hate to compare her to Atia of the Julia, but I am binge watching the BBC's two season smash, Rome. And that would be the typical male comparison, equaling Diane and Atia. The truth is we cannot as men fathom the character of Lucy as performed by Diane Curley. We might as well compare her Lucy to Circe. Circe could turn men into pigs or teach them how to sail on the Agean when it turned stormy. Men can't handle this Lucy's awful truth. Lucy can play us the way she plays the piano? Contemplate that. Maybe I should look closer the next time I visit the library, flip through a few forgotten filing cabinets.

Amazing experience. We had a great time.