Productions
2
2.5 Minute Ride (2000)
A
Absurd Person Singular (1977)
Absurd Person Singular (2003)
After the Fall (1967)
*Agnes Smedley: Our American Friend (1993)
*Alex and Aris (2017)
*Alki (2004)
Amadeus (1984)
An American Comedy (1990)
An Evening of One Acts (2014)
Angels Fall (1984)
Anything Goes (1978)
Arcadia (1996)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1966)
Artichoke (1980)
As You Like It (1977)
Assassins (2016)
*Assisted Living (2013)
Avenue X (1996)
B
Bach at Leipzig (2005)
Balcony, The (1970)
*Ballymurphy (1978)
*Becky's New Car (2008)
Below the Belt (2009)
Bethany (2014)
Betty the Yeti (1994)
Big Love (2001)
Big Slam, The (1997)
Billy Bishop Goes to War (1981)
Biloxi Blues (1987)
Birthday Party, The (1970)
Black Comedy/Captain Fantastick Meets the Ectomorph (1968)
*Bloomsday (2015)
Blues for an Alabama Sky (1997)
Boccaccio (1976)
Born in the RSA (1990)
Born Yesterday (2005)
Boys in the Band, The (1971)
break/s: a mixtape for the stage, the (2009)
Breaking the Silence (1989)
Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986)
Buried Child (1980)
Butterflies Are Free (1972)
C
Cambodian Rock Band (2024)
Caretaker, The (1967)
Case For The Existence of God, A (2024)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1965)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2015)
*Catholics (1980)
Caucasian Chalk Circle, The (1970)
Celebration (1969)
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (1971)
Chairs/The Bald Soprano, The (1974)
*Cheap (1996)
Choir Boy (2023)
Chorus of Disapproval, A (1988)
Clean House, The (2007)
Cloud 9 (1983)
Club, The (1977)
Collected Stories (1998)
Collection/The Room, The (1966)
Communicating Doors (1999)
Communication Cord, The (1984)
Conflict of Interest, A (1973)
Contractor, The (1973)
Count Dracula (1974)
Cover of Life, The (1993)
*Crabdance (1969)
Crimes of the Heart (1983)
Crimson Thread, The (1996)
Crucible, The (1999)
Crucible, The (2017)
Cry of Players, A (1971)
Custer (1981)
D
Da (1982)
*Daisy (2016)
Dangerous Liasons (2016)
Dark of the Moon (1965)
Das Barbecu (2009)
Day in the Death of Joe Egg, A (1973)
Death of a Salesman (1998)
Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter, The (1973)
Delicate Balance, A (1968)
Deputy, The (1967)
Desire Under the Elms (1976)
Diary of a Scoundrel, The (1987)
Dining Room, The (1983)
Dinner With Friends (2001)
Dirty Blonde (2002)
*Double Indemnity (2011)
Downside, The (1989)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2009)
Dracula (2019)
Dreams From a Summer House (1993)
Dresser, The (1983)
E
*Echoes (1972)
Educating Rita (1983)
*Education of Randy Newman, The (2002)
Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, The (1972)
Eh? (1968)
Eleemosynary (1992)
Enchanted April (2004)
End of the World (1985)
Endgame (1970)
Eurydice (2008)
Every Brilliant Thing (2023)
F
Fanshen (1979)
Fantasticks, The (1967)
Fantasticks, The (1979)
Fathers and Sons (2008)
Female of the Species, The (2010)
Fiction (2004)
*First Class (2007)
*First Date (2012)
Fish Head Soup (1994)
*Flight (2005)
Fool for Love (1984)
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1980)
Four Our Fathers (1990)
Fridays (1982)
Fuddy Meers (2002)
G
Getting Out (1981)
Gin Game, The (1982)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1987)
Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, The (2003)
Goblin Market (1999)
*God of Vengance (2000)
*God's Country (1988)
Godspell (1974)
*Going to St. Ives (1997)
Good Boys (2004)
Gospel at Colonus, The (1995)
Grand Magic (2001)
*Gray's Anatomy (1994)
Great Divide, The (1967)
Greeks: The Gods (Part 1), The (1982)
Greeks: The War (Part 2), The (1982)
Grey Gardens (2013)
H
Hadrian VII (1971)
*Halcyon Days (1991)
*Handing Down the Names (1995)
Hapgood (1990)
*Happenstance (1989)
Henry IV, Part I (1978)
*History of Theatre: About, By, For, and Near (2023)
Hold These Truths (2015)
Holy Ghosts (1979)
Homecoming, The (1969)
Hospitality (1995)
Hot L Baltimore, The (1974)
*Hotter Than Egypt (2022)
I
Ilkhom Theatre Festival, The (2008)
Illusion, The (1991)
In Celebration (1974)
In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (2011)
*In The Penal Colony (2000)
In White America (1966)
Inadmissible Evidence (1969)
Intimate Exchanges (2008)
Invisible Hand, The (2014)
J
Jacques Brel is Alive and Living in Paris (2015)
Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, The (1986)
Jumpers (2004)
K
Keely and Du (1994)
King Lear (1985)
King of the Yees (2017)
L
Lady With All the Answers, The (2010)
Ladyhouse Blues (1977)
*Language of Flowers, The (1995)
Later Life (1995)
Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1996)
Lauren Weedman Doesn't Live Here Anymore (2018)
Legend of Georgia McBride, The (2017)
Lehman Trilogy, The (2024)
Lie of the Mind, A (1987)
Lieutenant of Inishmore, The (2010)
Life During Wartime (1993)
Lion in Winter, The (1968)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Little Shop of Horrors (2014)
Lloyd's Prayer (1990)
Lonely Planet (1993)
Loose Ends (1981)
Luv (1967)
M
Makassar Reef (1978)
Man and Superman (1979)
Man of the Moment (1994)
March of the Falsettos (1987)
Marriage of Bette and Boo, The (1987)
Marvelous Party: The Noël Coward Celebration, A (2008)
Mary Stewart (2011)
Maydays (1985)
Me Nobody Knows, The (1972)
Merrily We Roll Along (1988)
Middletown (2013)
Miss Witherspoon (2006)
*Mitzi's Abortion (2006)
Mojo and the Sayso, The (2007)
Moon for the Misbegotten, A (2003)
Moonchildren (1972)
Mourning Becomes Electra (2002)
Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (2015)
Mrs. California (1988)
*Mrs. Loman Is Leaving (2025)
Murder for Two (2017)
My Children! My Africa! (1991)
*My One Good Nerve (1996)
Mystery of Love and Sex, The (2016)
N
Night and Day (1981)
Night of the Iguana, The (2005)
Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, The (1971)
Nina Variations, The (1997)
No Place to Be Somebody (1973)
*Normal Life, A (1990)
Notebook of Trigorin, The (1997)
Number, A (2006)
O
Odd Couple, The (2000)
Of Mice and Men (1975)
Oh Coward! (1975)
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1965)
Old Times (1973)
Old Wicked Songs (1997)
Omnimum-Gatherum (2003)
On the Razzle (1986)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1973)
One Slight Hitch (2012)
Oslo (2018)
Other Desert Cities (2013)
Other Places (1985)
Otherwise Engaged (1979)
Our Country's Good (1991)
Out at Sea/Striptease (1967)
P
Painting Churches (1986)
Pass Over (2019)
*People Of The Book (2019)
Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, The (1969)
Philadelphia, Here I Come (1969)
Physicists, The (1966)
*Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (2011)
Pillowman, The (2006)
Pinter Festival, The (2012)
Pitmen Painters, The (2012)
Plaza Suite (1971)
*Polish Joke (2001)
POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive (2025)
Price, The (2014)
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The (1970)
Principia Scriptoriae (1988)
Prisoner of Second Avenue, The (2011)
Private Ear/The Public Eye, The (1965)
Q
Quartermaine's Terms (1985)
*Quiet Caravans (1975)
Quills (1998)
R
*Ramayana (2012)
Rapture, Blister, Burn (2013)
*Red and the Black, The (1993)
Red Noses (1989)
Relatively Speaking (1976)
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The (1975)
Revengers' Comedies (Parts I and II), The (1992)
Rhinoceros (1969)
Ride The Cyclone (2018)
Rock 'n' Roll (2009)
Romeo and Juliet (2019)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1970)
Royal Hunt of the Sun (1968)
Royale, The (2016)
Runt of the Litter (2009)
S
Scapino (1976)
*Scent of the Roses (1998)
Sea Horse, The (1978)
Shadow Box, The (1978)
Shadowlands (1992)
Side Man (1999)
Sizwe Bansi Is Dead (1976)
Skull in Connemara, A (2000)
Skylight (2018)
Sleuth (1975)
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground (1968)
Soldier's Play, A (1983)
Souvenir (2007)
Starting Here, Starting Now (1980)
Stew (2024)
Stonewall Jackson's House (1999)
Streamers (1977)
Streetcar Named Desire, A (1974)
Stuff Happens (2007)
Stupid Fucking Bird (2016)
Sugar Daddies (2013)
*Summer Moon (1998)
Sunsets and Glories (1992)
Sweat (2022)
Syringa Tree, The (2003)
T
Tales from Hollywood (1986)
Talley's Folly (2000)
Tea (1995)
*Tears of Rage (1991)
*Temporary Help (1999)
Thin Place, The (2022)
*Thirteen (1984)
*Threesome (2015)
Thunder Knocking on the Door (1998)
Thurber Carnival, A (1966)
Time of Your Life, The (1976)
Tiny Alice (1966)
Top Girls (1984)
Travesties (1977)
Trial of the Catonsville Nine, The (1972)
Tribes (2017)
Trip to Bountiful, The (2010)
True West (1985)
*Trust (1992)
Twigs (1974)
Typists/The Tiger, The (1966)
U
*Ugly American, The (2005)
*Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam (2012)
Underpants, The (2006)
Until The Flood (2018)
Urinetown (2019)
V
Vanities: A New Musical (2011)
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2014)
*Vincent in Brixton (2005)
Violet (1998)
Voice of the Prairie, The (1988)
*Voices in the Dark (1994)
W
Waiting for Godot (1968)
Waiting for the Parade (1982)
Waiting to be Invited (2001)
Walk in the Woods, A (1989)
Water Engine, The (1979)
What the Butler Saw (1972)
When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1975)
Who'll Save the Plowboy? (1965)
Whose Life Is It, Anyway? (1981)
*Willi: An Evening of Wilderness and Spirit (1991)
Wine in the Wilderness (2006)
Wings (1980)
Wintertime (2002)
Wolf Play (2023)
Wolves, The (2018)
Woman in Mind (1989)
Women, The (2007)
Y
Yankee Tavern (2010)
Year of Magical Thinking, The (2019)
Yellowman (2002)
Your Own Thing (1970)
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (1971)
* World Premiere

The Communication Cord (1984)
Brian Friel takes us to the remote Irish town of Ballybeg for this often-hilarious story of a young man trying to impress his girlfriend’s father. The father is a pompous senator with a romantic attachment to the “auld" Ireland; he and a variety of other eccentric characters threaten the young man’s well-planned weekend.

The Communication Cord was first produced by the Field Day Theatre Company in Derry, Ireland, in September of 1982, two years after its companion piece, Translations. ACT is pleased to present its American premiere.
About the Play
Written By: Brian Friel
About the Production
Run Dates: 10/25/1984 - 11/17/1984
Program: Program (.pdf)
Venue: Queen Anne
Directed By: Mel Shapiro
Cast: Dorothy Brooks - Susan Donovan
Mary Diveny - Nora Dan
Katherine Ferrand - Evette Giroux
Davis Hall - Tim Gallagher
Daren Kelly - Jack McNeilis
Peter Lohnes - Barney the Banks
Michael Morgan-Dunne - Senator Doctor Donovan
Liann Pattison - Claire Harkin
Behind the Scenes: Bill Carswell - Sound Designer
Gregory A. Falls - Producing Director
Bill Forrester - Set Designer
Sarah Nash Gates - Costume Designer
Joan Kennedy - Stage Manager
Phil Schermer - Producing Manager
Susan Trapnell Moritz - Administrative Manager
James Verdery - Lighting Designer
The Communication Cord
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