Video: Kate Baldwin and Christopher Innvar Unpack THE DEAD, 1904

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

The award-winning Irish rep has brought back their holiday tradition, James Joyce's The Dead, 1904, to the American Irish Historical Society

where I caught up with two of the show stars, Kate Baldwin and Christopher Inbar

Okay, how exciting is this to be working on this beautiful new production of James Joyce's The Dead, 1904

That's right. Richie, I read this story when I was a senior in high school

I had a fabulous English teacher at my public school in Shorewood, Wisconsin

and she gave us the Dubliners to read, and The Dead is the very last in that compilation of short stories

So I have loved this particular story my entire adult life, so I was thrilled to be invited to be part of this production

Yeah, Chris, did you know it before? Yeah, I read the Dubliners in high school

and I'd seen that musical version at Playwright's Horizons, and I'd seen many things at Irish Rep, so I was thrilled

come on board here. Okay, so what was like that first read-through like because some people have

done this show before you have these incredible Irish actors who have been a part of the rep

forever? What was it like? Well, it was a little intimidating. But just because I guess there

are four of us in the cast who are American, American, seven, seven Irish people

Irish people who have flawless dialects, of course. And so then we are, here we are trying

to make sense of things and struggling through, you know, our, yeah. Yeah. Completely generous, great group of people, though, and very, you know, very supportive of us

Irish Americans. We have Irish in us. Yeah, yeah, but not. We're just not national

You know, you have the nationality. I don't have a passport. So this is an immersive production

So had either of you done immersive theater before? I'm trying to think

Does a cruise ship count? Yes, I think so, right? I have not. I've not done a cruise ship and I've not done immersive theater

No. But it fun It you know the audience is willing to let us excuse me push by them and they sort of they part of the event you know so it fun It is yeah It unlike any other immersive experience you have Like it up to the patron really how much they want to interact with people or not

There's no, you know, there's no obligation there. And there's no obligation with us either, except when someone's in your way, you know, trying to get, trying to get by

And there are people who sit at the dinner table because there's a dining room scene

the second scene in the show, is about having a big feast

And so there are four people who get to sit at the table with us. And so far so good. Everyone's been really engaging and lovely

It must be great. I love immersive theater and I can't wait to come and see this production here, but it's got to be so great though, because you probably feel like you're living in that time period and people are watching you like act in between different rooms and things, right

Well, it also kind of feels like a film in a way because it is a 360 experience, right

Yeah, yeah, that's, I agree with that. Okay, good. Yeah. So let's talk about your director, Kieran O'Reilly

I mean, first of all, he's one of the co-founders of the Irish rep. And what makes him such a wonderful director

Everybody who I've spoken to over the years, the Mary Beth Peels and everybody else, love working with Kieran

What is it? I would think, I would say it is his deep knowledge of the piece, first of all

And then his gentle, he's such a gentle guide. He sort of nudges you towards where he would like you to go, but really gave us a lot of freedom

of freedom and leeway to really find the beast and I haven't had this much time to work on a

play in a long time I think I I've been going from job to job to job and it all goes very very

quickly but I think uh Kieran put in a wonderful length of time for us to actually really

explore it and ask questions and and get down to it yeah and he's really generous you know this

generosity of spirit and rehearsal where he lets you do whatever, you know, you figure it out on your own. But also it's great. I give him a little bit of a hard time with this though

He a wonderful actor So while we rehearsing scenes I watch him watch the scene and he playing all the parts and I seeing him going you know he just as interesting and I going he should play Gabriel Conroy I going to watch him during my scenes to see what I should do

You know, no, he's really, really generous and super smart about this kind of material

Yeah. Talk about who you each play. I play Greta Conroy and I'm married to Gabriel Conroy

who is the favorite nephew of the duo of ants, the pair of ants who are throwing

their holiday party. What do you love the most about her so far? Well, I love how strong and

determined and earthy she is. She is from the west of Ireland, a city called Galway. She's not

from Dublin. She's not a city person, but she has managed to navigate that kind of life for the last

at least 20 years. So I like how she is true to herself. I love that. And for you, talk about

who you play in what you love about. Yeah, I play Gabriel Conroy, who sort of is the stand-in for Joyce, really, in the piece

And they're married, and she's from the West, but he's, so that's sort of country, you know

and Gabriel, like Joyce, is looking towards Europe for new influences, and he wants to get away from the nationalism that's sort of represented in the play by Miss Ivers

and so he's a writer and he reviews books and like Joyce and through the course of the play he

this thing that he keeps pushing for which is a sort of a move towards the east he ends up going

on this journey finding out a secret from his wife at the very end of the play which sort of

turns things upside down and he realizes that maybe I need to create a new a new path

open my mind up to something new, the audience, and Gabriel are sort of surprised by

the end of the play and it's kind of a nice thrilling ride to be on

Yeah Why do you think this is such a beloved piece James Joyce is the Dead I mean you talked to people like you said you read it you knew So many people know this piece or want to find out about this piece What is it about this piece and James Joyce in general

What do you think it is? Why he's so beloved? I think it's how rich the text is. I think it is how many layers of reference and storytelling are going on

There's no simple line. Everything has subtext. Everything has a relationship underneath it

and makes for a very sort of profound experience. Yeah, Chris. Yeah, well, I mean, people talk about this

is maybe the greatest short story ever written. You know, and I think, yeah, there's this humanity to it

There's relationships that are nuanced and beautiful and people struggling with real issues, you know, personal issues

And it has this. sort of surprise to it at the end. So I think it you think you're on, you think you know the story

that's being told to you. And then at the end you're, it's sort of turned upside down. So I think

yeah, I think that's all part of what makes it thrilling. What can audiences expect to having

bought tickets yet to this? What can they expect coming to see this? A festive party atmosphere

with some live music. We have a fabulous violinist, Heather Bixler. We have people who play the

piano. Karen Killeen, who plays Mary Jane, plays the piano. Mary Beth Peel sings an

aria for us. Karen sings. Karen sings as well. And Kate Baldwin sings. They threw in a song for me

which is really nice. They were like, if you're going to have Kate Baldwin in your cast, wow. Absolutely. And the atmosphere could not be better. You see a little bit of it just by

being here, but when the lights are, you know, focused on the action that's happening, and it's just a warm

glow and actually the food is quite delicious. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah, we looked at each other last night

we'd like, oh my God, this is really. And you walk in the door and they hand you a glass of whiskey or port or wine

It's pretty great. She have a light breakfast, a light lunch, and you have dinner here, right? That's right. That's exactly

Only 50 turkey dinners to go. Is that right? Something like that, yeah