"Mad Angels is a collection of Larry Kirwan's plays. They range through subjects like the rock & roll (Liverpool Fantasy/Days of Rage), politics (Mister Parnell/Blood), and boxing (Night in the Garden). All the plays have been produced and the casts/directors/tech staffs/theatres are noted. The plays are all available for production and provide many stirring original monologues suitable for actors' auditions. Liverpool Fantasy wonders what would have happened to The Beatles, and the world at large, if they'd never made it. This most frequently produced of Kirwan's plays has been staged at the Dublin Theatre Festival and Off-Broadway. Mister Parnell takes place on the night before the "Uncrowed King of Ireland," Charles Stewart Parnell was cited in a famous divorce case. It is essential reading for anyone interested in either the case or the period. That night changed ireland's course in history and is still having ramifications today. Blood deals with the three days that revolutionary socialist, James Connolly, went missing in early 1916 and his supposed encounter with Padraig Pearse and Sean MacDermott, leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Kirwan specualates on what might have happened during the "kidnapping. " And why this most practical of men joined a collection of poets, misfits, educators and pragmatists in a tragice uprising against the might of the British Empire. Days or Rage takes place in New York's East Village in the mid-80's. It chronicles the descent into violent delusion of Stevie Hero, a rock & roll singer who decides to take one last stab at fame in the company of James Joyce and a Che Guevara like figure. This is a musical containing some songs that went on to become staples of early Black 47 set lists. Night in the Garden examines Frankie Riley, a "Great White Hope" from Brooklyn and the effect of his rise to fame on his handlers and family. It also deals with the power of the media and the lure of celebrity.
