By Walter Murphy…
In Granny Jackson’s Dead, a new Irish-American comedy—which played for six performances in competition as part of the 2025 Origin 1st Irish festival earlier this month—the titular “Granny” has died and her family receives guests at her home, where she lies in state. In this production, the home is in the Beaux-Arts townhouse of the American Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue, across the street from the stately Metropolitan Museum of Art. Granny lived the high life, and for the attendees of Granny Jackson’s Dead, it’s a posh place for a wake.
In the immersive style of Philadelphia’s Tiny Dynamite, last year’s winner of the Most Innovative Play of the 1st Irish Origin festival for The Worst Cafe in the World, Granny’s family receives guests/mourners who are led on a tour of the ornate home.
The tour features a sales pitch about buying the historic building for the listed price of $30 million, a new-age exercise in the cramped gallery kitchen, an Irish history lesson in the library, and an investor pitch about using virtual reality to maintain a relationship with the departed. On the final stop on the “Goodbye Granny” tour, family secrets and twists are revealed. If it’s an Irish production, there are always family secrets.
Throughout the 70-minute production, the combined casts of Tiny Dynamite of Philadelphia and Big Telly of Belfast manage to overcome grief to make engaging sales pitches and scamper about the multi-story townhouse. Amidst it all, Granny’s daughter Susan (Shelley Atkinson) blasts full-throated commands that shake the stately home at ear-piercing shrillness. She starts at “eleven” and then turns the volume up even more. No detail is too small to escape her attention and critique.
Granny (Cara MacMahon) herself is seen at the wake in the forms of Virtual Reality (VR) in glimpses her grandson Darren (Gavin Peden) has created as part of his project/product UNFORGET, managed by his partner. Darren had been recording Granny’s image and voice while still alive so that he could continue his relationship with her in death. For example, one could dance with Granny while wearing a VR headset. Multimedia installed throughout the home gives the illusion that Granny is still in the house. Excellent VR productions.
The final gathering of the cast—which included Meghan Winch, Emily Tracey, Satchel Williams, Michael Stahler, and Taylor Congdon—and mourners presents a surprising series of twists, some dramatic, some heartfelt and most hysterically funny. Although the VR aspects may seem creepy, the absolute joy and earnestness of the cast captures the intended comedy of Granny’s family and death. Great craic all around.
The immersive style of Tiny Dynamite productions sets stories in non-traditional “theaters.” The Worst Cafe was set in the upstairs bar of Ryan’s Daughter. Granny Jackson’s Dead follows that style by hosting a wake in an actual home. Immersive theater may not be every theatergoer’s choice, and some attendees seemed reluctant participants. However, it does afford attendees the opportunity to participate in the theatrical experience. In this case, an added bonus for this production, besides the quirky story and boisterous performances, is the opportunity to see the play in a genuine “Gilded Age” townhouse.
Kudos to director Zoe Seaton for managing this expansive production. The audience was divided into groups that, at various times, were on different floors with different actors. And within 70 minutes all three groups experienced the same performances from the actors, so that at the final sit down everyone in the audience was on the same page when Granny’s soliloquy began. And, somehow, all knew the songs sung to say goodbye to Granny. Well done!
Granny Jackson’s Dead ran for six performances at the American Irish Historical Society as part of the 2025 Origin 1st Irish festival. Funding for Big Telly’s participation was made available by Culture Ireland.
Photos Courtesy of Inis Nua (except where otherwise indicated)