There’s no love like an Irish mother’s love.
New play “Ellen’s Boys” takes audience from a Dorchester triple decker to
center stage at The First Trinitarian Congregational Church, Scituate
Dateline – Scituate, MA…
Scituate area audiences will have the opportunity to travel back in time for a uniquely working class Irish American experience – life in a triple decker in Dorchester, 1965. True Repertory Theatre presents Ellen’s Boys, by Braintree playwright James Sullivan, at the First Trinitarian Congregational Church, 381 Country Way, Scituate.
Performances include May 9, 10, 16, 17 @ 8PM and matinees May 11, 18 @ 3PM. The May 10th performance will include a pre-performance gala reception featuring appetizers and a cash bar starting at 6PM for an inclusive price of $35. The company has partnered with local LGBTQIA+, and local Irish organizations, to highlight the plays central theme of accepting change.
Ellen’s Boys focuses on the Flaherty family, living in their Dorchester triple decker, in 1965. Ellen, a widow who has raised six children on her own, must learn to accept the changing times and her aging children’s embrace of the future.
Her middle son, Gil, grown and still living at home, struggles to come to terms with his sexuality in the face of his staunch Irish Catholic upbringing, as his mother attempts to marry him off. We follow the Flaherty family through a tumultuous year of upheaval in which no secrets are safe, no boundaries are respected, and only their love for one another, and their sense of humor, can save them.
“True Rep strives to create an environment for local playwrights to be heard and audiences to experience something unique and eye opening. We are delighted to bring Ellen’s Boys to a wider audience,” says Artistic Director Donald Sheehan, who plays Gil in the True Rep production.
“You don’t have to be Irish to recognize this family,” says Victoria Bond, who plays Ellen. “Their dysfunction is tempered by love, and they are beautifully imperfect and deeply human. Audiences can’t help but root for the Flaherty family – just as we are rooting for this play.”
True Rep will be bringing Ellen’s Boys to NYC at the end of June for a limited two week run.
The playwright, James Sullivan of Braintree, who has been writing plays for 30 years, says, “I am humbled by the hard work and authenticity that True Rep brings to my play, and thrilled by the level of talent they bring to this production.”
The cast includes Don Sheehan of Pembroke, Victoria Bond of Plymouth; Elly Berke of Somerville; Julie Butler of Pembroke; Elias Wettengel of Salem; Rob Buckel-Gillis of Scituate; Justin Maloney of Quincy; and Jessica Moss of Newton.
Tickets are $25 General Admission and $22 Seniors & Students. The May 10th performance will include the option of a pre-performance gala reception featuring appetizers and a cash bar at 6PM for $35, inclusive.
Welcome!
Laugh, cry, cheer. Feel something. Think something.
True Repertory Theatre engages, inspires, entertains and challenges audiences with theatrical productions that range from the classics to new works.
True Repertory Theatre seeks to be the premiere theatrical organization in the region – providing productions and programs that make an essential contribution to the quality of life in the community.
Project 719
True Rep collaborates with a local organization whose mission dovetails thematically with a current production to raise awareness and offer fund-raising opportunities.
Anti-Bullying Theatre Outreach
True Repertory Theatre is collaborating with local playwright James Sullivan and consulting with child psychologists to develop a theatrical experience geared toward students in middle school through highschool that explores the nature and cost of bullying.
Traveling Theatre
You don’t have to be Irish to laugh out loud at Ellen’s Boys which focuses on the Flaherty family, living in their Dorchester triple decker, in 1965.