The Cambria, A Performance by Donal O'Kelly FREE March 1, 2007

Free



"A powerful theatrical experience ... a stirring production" -Irish Examiner

"A first-class ticket to Dublin. . . wonderful to watch. ****" -The Guardian

Critically acclaimed Irish actor and writer Donal O'Kelly performs The Cambria, about African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass's voyage to Ireland in 1845 on the eve of the potato famine.

The Cambria was a transatlantic Cunard Line paddle-steamer. On August 10, 1845, the very eve of the great Irish Famine, escaped slave Frederick Douglass was among the passengers on the Cambria's Boston-Cork route. He had just published his life story, and it had become a bestseller. He was forced to flee with a high price on his head and he sought asylum in Ireland.

Travelling in disguise, Frederick Douglass was thrown out of the first-class deck, and once his identity was revealed, there was an attempt by a slaveholders' mob to throw him overboard. He was saved partly by the intervention of a Quaker ladies' choir, and by a dramatic about-turn by the captain. He went on to become what Abraham Lincoln called "the most impressive man I ever met." He coined the time-honored slogan, "Power concedes nothing without demand; it never did, and it never will."

The Cambria is a play which causes us to reflect on the intertwined fates of African American slaves and the poor Irish peasantry who would emigrate in the millions to escape starvation. In the United States, the Irish often lived and worked alongside African Americans, causing both racial tension and, at times, solidarity and cooperation. Douglass himself was welcomed and supported in Ireland by Daniel O'Connell, the famous political organizer and nationalist, and Douglass compared the conditions of the Irish, as he witnessed them during his travels, to those of slaves in America.

Conference on the Black and Green Atlantic:
The production will be followed the next day by a conference on the Black and Green Atlantic. Speakers at the conference will discuss the journeys and cultural connections of African and Irish migrants and slaves of the Atlantic region throughout the modern period. Topics will include slavery and indenture in the Atlantic world, rebellion and political organizing, musical and literary connections, ethnic difference and racialization and the transnational experience.

The production:
The two-hander show (Donal O'Kelly and Sorcha Fox) is a punchy combination of physical performance and vocal delivery with musical underscoring, which took Ireland by storm when it opened there in March 2005.

Donal O'Kelly:
Donal O'Kelly is a writer and actor. His much-travelled solo plays include the award-winning Catalpa, Bat the Father Rabbit the Son and Jimmy Joyced! He recently completed an Irish tour of his play The Cambria, about Frederick Douglass's voyage to Ireland in 1845, performed with Sorcha Fox.

Other plays include The Dogs (Rough Magic Dublin), Hughie on the Wires, Trickledown Town, The Business of Blood, Farawayan (all Calypso Productions Dublin) Asylum! Asylum! (Peacock, Abbey Theatre; Traverse Edinburgh, Ottawa, and Boston), Judas of the Gallarus (Peacock, Abbey Theatre) and The Hand (Dublin Theatre Festival).

He has twice been awarded an Irish Arts Council literature bursary, and in 1999 was awarded the Irish American Cultural Institute Butler Literary Award.

For radio, he has written Running Beast, a play-with-music based on the life of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, as well as radio versions of Catalpa, Bat the Father Rabbit the Son, The Dogs, Hughie on the Wires and The Cambria, all broadcast on RTE.

As an actor, his movie roles include Bimbo in Roddy Doyle's The Van, and roles in Irish movies Spin the Bottle and I Went Down. He has appeared in Beckett's Act without Words I at the Lincoln Center, Waiting for Godot at the Toronto Winter Garden, Juno and the Paycock at the Abbey Theatre and in Colm Toibin's Beauty in a Broken Place at the Peacock. He has toured Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia with his solo plays.

Organized by David Lloyd (English) and Peter O'Neill (writing program).

For further information on this event:
[email protected]

Official Website: http://www.usc.edu/webapps/events_calendar/custom/113/index.php?category=Item&item=0.861439&active_category=Upcoming