![]() ![]() Brendan is identified as Brendan Rohan on the website and Brendan Hughes in the theater’s press release. Gerry Sullivan is identified as Gerry Adams on the theater’s promo postcard. The other members of the crew are Oscar (Vic Kuligoski) and Denny (Joshua Servantes).Īctually, several of the characters are named inconsistently – in the theater’s apparently erratic effort to disguise the real-life participants. ![]() The Unknowns are led by Brendan (Elliott Sagay), who represents his real-life counterpart, Brendan Hughes (known as The Dark, because of his dark hair and complexion). Washington and Brown are both believable as the sisters and committed Provo members their mom, Deirdre, is a firebrand for the original IRA too, storing weapons in their home to deliver as needed. The Provos and other IRA members are inspired by the speeches of Gerry Sullivan (an obvious stand-in for the real Gerry Adams), played by veteran Chicago actor Rob Koon. Clockwise from bottom left, Ben Veatch, Brittney Brown, Anne Sheridan Smith and Amber Washington. (The men are imprisoned in Long Kesh, an infamous British prison where they carry on a hunger strike as well as other acts of protest.) Fianna and Regan are released from prison on humanitarian grounds. The stage becomes the scene of a London bombing, and then an English prison, where Fianna and Regan carry on a devastating hunger strike. The sisters participate in the kidnapping and execution of a young Belfast widow with 10 children, who was identified as a tout (informer) for passing IRA secrets to the British. ![]() (The IRA split into factions in 1969-70 the Provisional IRA became the more active paramilitary branch.) Later Regan (Brittney Brown) the sharpshooter of the family, joins too. Shannon O’Neill’s world premiere play, The Kelly Girls, now on stage at the Factory Theater, is inspired by the real-life story of two other sisters who committed their lives to that fight.ĭirector Spenser Davis uses the small and spare Factory Theater stage to advantage, as it turns from the Kelly family kitchen to an operations center for The Unknowns, the branch of the Provos (Provisional IRA) that the older sister, Fianna (Amber Washington), joins, after demonstrating her prowess in operating a firearm. They’re inspired and coached by their parents, Shane (Ben Veatch) and Dierdre (Anne Sheridan Smith), longtime IRA members. The Kelly Girls are sharpshooters and fiery activists, committed to carrying on the cause of a united Ireland. But don’t confuse them with the “Derry Girls,” who are happily obsessed with teenaged issues such as boys and parties, while the Troubles rage around them, until their Netflix series ends with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Fianna and Regan Kelly are The Kelly Girls, teenagers living in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the 1960s. ![]()
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