Happy Birthday Dear Alice – Fall 2001

A Two Act Comedy
By Bernard Farrell     Directed By Larry Coughlin

The Play

This is a two-act comedy set in the kitchen of Alice’s home in Ireland. In Act One we celebrate Alice’s seventieth birthday and in Act Two we celebrate her seventy-first. See what changes, if any, a year can make! Due to a tragic accident, Alice was widowed at an early age and left to raise a son, Barry, and a daughter Barbara, on her own. Barbara now lives in San Francisco with her husband Cormac and Barry lives in England with his new girlfriend, Sandy, while Alice lives alone except for the company of Jimmy Heffernan her neighbor for many years. Her children return each year to “celebrate” her birthday and present Alice with plans to place her in an “old peoples” home, however, this is Alice’s greatest nightmare and they have not counted on her determination
not to go through with their scheme. Bernard Farrell has given us an excellent play with lots of laughs and one that all the Alices of this world can certainly relate to.

The Cast

Kate McNally as Alice
Barney Farrely as Jimmy
Sarah Tritschler as Barbara
Martin Murphy as Barry
Michael Schifferdecker as Cormac
Megan Griffith as Sandy
Amy Beirne, Assistant Director
Christina Garrivan, Producer