The Cripple of Inishmaan

Director: Merlaine Angwall
Phone: 424-4417
Where: UW Oshkosh Theatre, UW Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, WI 54901
Tickets: $10 for general, $8 for Senior Citizen and UWO Students with ID $3.00

Performance dates: April 27 through May 1, 2005

This dark comedy moves between kindness to outward acts of cruelty as it tells the tale of Billy, a disabled yet loveable youth in a small 1934 Irish community who seeks to escape the ongoing ridicule from the community in which he lives. This opportunity presents itself when a filmmaker, Robert Flaherty from Hollywood, arrives to make a documentary entitled, Man of Aran. Billy is taken to Hollywood for a screen test, but returns when he find that he is too connected to the people and the land he grew up in. The story is told through a quirky cast of characters including his two kind-hearted foster aunts, the local news and gossip Johnnypateen, and the object of Billy's affections the teasing and tempestuous Helen. Billy's character comes of age when he comes to a better understanding of who he is and his value in the community.