Z Space: Who’s Dead, McCarthy?: Stories by Kevin Barry

Z Space and Word for Word present:
Who is dead, McCarthy:
Stories by Kevin Barry
Director: Paul Finocchiaro
With “Who’s Dead McCarthy”, “The Wintersongs” and “The Coast of Leitrim”

26 June to 21 July
in Z Bottom

Word for Word’s latest production brings to the stage three stories by Kevin Barry, an Irish author and master of the short story who embodies the coarse and sometimes stridently poetic vocabulary for which Ireland is particularly known.

The three works include “Who’s-Dead McCarthy,” a story about a self-proclaimed harbinger of death in a small Irish town who can’t help but happily gossip and recount the details of other people’s deaths to everyone he meets. A story perfect for anyone who likes their humor a little dark.

In The Winter Songs, two strangers meet on a train. A garrulous old woman admonishes a girl whose journey through life is just beginning, as both speed through the countryside under “the arc of a faint sun” toward Dublin.

The Coast of Leitrim tells the story of a lonely Irish man who falls in love with a young Polish woman, goes down a Google-powered rabbit hole and falls deeper and deeper in love with her. A modern romance about how love changes.

If these stories were wine, their description might read: “Contains hints of humor, regret, anticipation and Flannery O’Connor.”

“Barry’s stories are playful, serious and beautifully crafted at the same time and offer us the balm we need in these turbulent times.”
—JoAnne Winter, artistic director of Word for Word

Buy tickets – https://www.zspace.org/barry

View schedule
Preview: Wed. 26.6. 7 p.m., Thu. 27.6. 7 p.m., Fri. 28.6. 8 p.m.
Opening night: Saturday, 29 June, 8 p.m.
Duration: 29.6. – 21.7. | Wed. & Thurs. 7 p.m. | Fri. & Sat. 8 p.m. | Sun. 2 p.m.
Performances with mask: Sun., 30 June and Thurs., 18 July. Masks are compulsory for all spectators.