Vincent Van Gogh

‘Van Gogh’s in the Attic’ to be presented at Abbey Theater of Dublin


A deluded Irish painter sparks comedy and criminality in an Irish playwright’s next world premiere at the Abbey Theater of Dublin.

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Original Productions Theatre (OPT) and the Abbey Theater are to co-produce Sean Cooney’s “Van Gogh’s in the Attic,” running April 5-14 at the Dublin Community Recreation Center.

“Cooney always finds a way to give us something familiar in his plays. In this case, it’s an appreciation of the artistry of Vincent Van Gogh,” said director Joe Bishara, Abbey Theater supervisor.

For Cooney, life itself makes for compelling theater.

“It’s a perfect madness,” he said by email from New York. “The world is an outdoor mental hospital, and my plays explore this through comedy and drama.”

What sparked the story for ‘Van Gogh’s in the Attic’?

Set in the 1980s on Ireland’s south coast, Cooney’s play revolves around covert schemes and deceptions in a busy household.

The antics begin when house matron Mrs. Barnacle (Dayton Willison), who may have dementia, contacts the media to report discovering a lost Van Gogh painting in her attic.

Meanwhile, gunrunners Father Brady (Niko Carter) and Fritzi (Scott Douglas Wilson), Mrs. Barnacle’s son-in-law, seek to profit from the delusional Fergal MacAdoo, who stores his Van-Gogh-style self-portraits in the attic.

The play’s title reflects Cooney’s humor.

“’Van Gogh’s in the Attic’ is like ‘bats in the belfry’… Fergal, struggling with PTSD, isn’t Vincent Van Gogh, but he thinks he is. He’s in the attic because he’s not all right ‘upstairs’,” Bishara said.

What inspires Cooney?

Cooney’s fantastical plays reflect reality.

“The theatrical process helps me cope with everything going on in my life,” Cooney said.

“Van Gogh’s in the Attic” was inspired by his discovery of Van Gogh’s artwork in his family’s attic and his late mother’s struggle with early-onset dementia.

“Writing this play helped me process losing my mother and… helps me feel connected to her,” Cooney said.

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Cooney’s “Moby Dick’s Gone Missing,” whose world premiere by OPT and the Abbey co-produced in October, also mirrors actual events.

The comedy, set for revival in August at the Dublin Irish Festival, follows shenanigans at the Cooney-family pub in his Ireland hometown during the 1956 shooting nearby of director John Huston and Gregory Peck’s film “Moby Dick.’

“To write and relive those moments inspired so much joy and passion in me… Writing these plays fills me with deep catharsis,” Cooney said.

Why Fergal identifies as Vincent

Phil Cunningham plays Fergal, suffering dissociative fugue triggered in childhood by Dublin bombing attacks.

“Naïve and excitable, but very kind, Fergal has spent much of his life locked away inside the personhood of Vincent… Always an artist, Fergal is struggling to understand who he is and why,” Cunningham said.

Under Mrs. Barnacle’s care in the house, Fergal imagines her and other residents as people in Van Gogh’s life.

“When they start to behave in ways contradicting that, Fergal becomes confused and anxious,” Cunningham said.

Mistaking recently arrived caretaker Erin (Grace Emmenegger-Conrad) for Van Gogh’s lover Gabrielle, “Vincent” begins to fall for her.

“At its heart, this is a poignant and sweet story about someone finding themselves through their love for someone else,” Cunningham said.

Why Original Productions Theatre does Cooney

Alyssa Ryan, OPT executive director, views Cooney’s comedy as a quirky caper and “a game of chess… but not everyone is as they seem.”

“Sean is quirky himself,” said Ryan, who has known Cooney since 2022.

“He writes quirky well, but he’s also loving, sweet and kind, with heartwarming compassion… an underlying theme in his writing,” she said.

While Ryan enjoys Cooney’s fanciful flair, she said she appreciates his grounding in truth.

“Sean is so creative in elaborating from real-life incidents with interesting characters,” she said.

Ryan plays one: Nora, Barnacle’s daughter.

“Frustrated and angry but ultimately revealed as loving and compassionate, Nora is complicated. She questions the other characters and sees through their façade,” she said.

Ultimately, beyond crime and delusion, Cooney’s play is about love, Ryan said.

“People find love in the oddest places… Nora finds love, too, because she learns to love herself,” she said.

A popular playwright

Cooney became an Abbey favorite after contacting Bishara in 2021, having confused Dublin, Ohio’s theater program with Ireland’s illustrious Abbey Theatre of Dublin.

“By some divine arithmeticI’d mixed up the email addresses,” Cooney said.

Since then, Bishara has directed three Cooney plays, starting last April with “A Yankee Goes Home.”

“With Sean’s Irish lineage and us being in Dublin, Ohio, that’s a great fit for the Abbey, an incubation space for new works,” Bishara said.

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Perhaps more than many, Cooney senses the fuzzy borders between reality and imagination.

“Life and theater are so close to each other,” he said.

Growing up in Ireland, Cooney experienced his family’s pub as a theater.

“People would walk in… singing, reciting poetry, telling stories, acting out events without prompting,” he said. “This spectacle shaped my life.”

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At a glance

Abbey Theater of Dublin and Original Productions Theatre are to present “Van Gogh’s in the Attic” at 7 p.m. April 5-6 and April 11-13, and 2 p.m. April 7 and April 14 at 5600 Post Road, Dublin. Tickets cost $20 to $25. (dublinohiousa.gov/abbey-theater)



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