Catalpa

Alliance Repertory Company presents Catalpa, a one-man play by Donal O’Kelly, performed by Michael Cassady and directed by Kristin Horton.

Matthew Kidd is an unsuccessful screenwriter, whose recent rejection by Hollywood film executives launches him into an impromptu performance of his feature script The Catalpa. Shot by shot he transforms his lonely apartment into the world of his high-seas screenplay, painting the broad cinematic sequences and intimate close-ups of his epic script. Based on the true story of a daring rescue of six Irish Fenian prisoners from an Australian penal colony in 1875, Matthew transforms into the dozens of characters in his screenplay, including George Anthony, the commander of the whaling ship Catalpa, his tempestuous wife, the ghost of his mother in-law, the colorful crew of the Catalpa, and even the seagulls and whales of the sea.