Synopsis
Billy Irish
Published by Dramatists Play Service
3 Male 1 Female
When a young couple appear, claiming that their car has broken down, Billy and Joe suspect a trap - a premonition that is borne out when the boy and girl shortly steal back, announcing that they are Bonnie and Clyde and taking the two brothers captive
When all four are then encircled and held at bay by an unseen force, which gives them two minutes to surrender, the line between fantasy and reality is blurred still further
This is continued by the ensuing talk of Vietnam, political assassinations, religious fanatics, Charles Manson and other people and events of America's turbulent recent past
In the end Billy shoots Joe and then goes out to face a fusillade of bullets himself - but not before helping the two young people to escape, freeing them to pursue the disturbing destiny for which, sadly, the disjointed times have surely conditioned them
First presented as a joint production of the New York Shakespeare Festival and The Manhattan Theatre Club, this singular and brilliantly inventive play deftly combines the real and the imagined as it probes into American myths and mores and their power to both enhance and distort reality - for good or ill