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The Varsity is producing a second play by award-winning Irish playwright Conor McPherson

The Night Alive at the Varsity Flyer
Provided by The Varsity
The Night Alive at the Varsity

The theatrical production of “The Night Alive” will be presented this weekend at The Varsity Center. McPherson wrote the Varsity’s popular production of “The Weir,” which was presented last fall.

“The Night Alive” premiered in London in June 2013, then moved to Broadway and other venues across the United States, including Chicago and Los Angeles.

Kevin Purcell of Cobden is again directing. Actors in the production are some of the best in the region, and each has appeared in numerous productions in Carbondale and beyond. They are Kim Curlee, Sarah Dubach, Eric Billingsley, Dan Hill and Todd Brown.

The play is set in the drawing room of an Edwardian house in Dublin, which is now a rooming house inhabited by 50-something Tommy, who rents a room from his Uncle Maurice, who lives upstairs. Tommy's friend, Doc, also sleeps in the room and helps Tommy doing odd jobs and moving things around with Tommy's van. None of these men is in any kind of relationship, and they all scrape by from day to day amid the junk-filled squalor of the house.

One night, Tommy rescues a young woman, Aimee, from a beating on the street. He brings her home to get her cleaned up, and she ends up staying. A tentative friendship develops over the following weeks between Tommy and Aimee and between Aimee and the other men in the house. Trouble crashes into their lives when Aimee's ex-boyfriend, Kenneth, comes looking for her.

The play is not suitable for children.

“The Night Alive” will be presented at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 8. Tickets are $12 for adults or $6 for students with ID.

Tickets are available in advance online at www.thevarsitycenter.eventbrite.com. They aren’t available in advance at the venue but can be purchased one hour before each performance time, when doors and the Varsity Bar open.

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