Deborah Rupy has starred in more than a dozen plays over the last several years, but she has a special place in her heart for her upcoming show, The Caretaker of Corofin.
“This story is based off something that happened to me when I was in college studying in Ireland,” Rupy, a Hicksville resident, said. “It’s stuck with me all this time.”
The play is based on an experience Rupy had when she was 21 and traveling through Ireland after studying at the Abbey Theater in Dublin. During her journey, she stayed at a beautiful lakeside cottage in the small community of Corofin.
On New Year’s Day in 1987, the bus she was on was stopped by a police officer. The police officer got on the bus and asked if anyone had seen the caretaker of the cottages. Rupy said she had, as she had gone to his house late the night before looking for a payphone to call her parents from.
“I asked if they were looking for him and they said they had found him dead in the lake that morning,” Rupy remembered.
After brief questioning, Rupy was released but the experience still affected her greatly.
“The gentleman in real life had committed suicide,” Rupy said. “It’s a little spooky because I probably interrupted him in the process of ending his life.”
Rupy also saw the effect the suicide had on the tightly-knit Catholic community.
“No one knew he was that unhappy. Here we were celebrating a new year and he was ending his life,” Rupy said. “Suicide is a mortal sin in the Catholic community, therefore burial and funeral masses were not allowed in those days.”
Rupy wrote a short story relaying the experience a year after the incident, which was cathartic, but the event still stayed in the back of her mind. Years later, she was in rehearsal for the play Lady of Limerick when she told the story to the play’s writer, Claude Solnik. The Plainview-playwright was captivated by the story.
“I thought it had all the elements of the play, the only thing missing was the actual play,” Solnik said.
Soon after, Solnik wrote a full-length play based on Rupy’s story. Much of the play is fictionalized, with the focus not just on what happened to Rupy, but on how the whole town handled the death.
“They’re like a family. It’s about people who frequent a pub and how they handle things when this happens to one of their friends,” said Solnik, who describes the play as uplifting and emotionally moving. “It’s about seeing these people’s emotions and how they help each other.”
The play stars seven people from Long Island and the city, with Rupy playing the pub owner. Joining her in the cast is Westbury’s Michael Cesarano, who plays George, a middle-aged high school teacher in the town.
“He was a friend of the caretaker,” Cesarano said. “He and the caretaker were the same age and I imagine they went to school at the same time so it makes him more mindful of the time he has left.”
Cesarano, who is a member of the Westbury Arts Council and teaches theater at Queensborough Community College, said it was a challenge playing the cynical character.
“I haven’t played a character like this before. I had to put on the perspective of someone who has lived their whole life in a small town in Ireland and has a lot of cynicism and disdain towards America,” Cesarano said.
He said the mix of characters—including his own—is what captured his interest in the show.
“I think it’s an interesting set of characters and the way they interact,” he said. “I like the mix of George. You get to see his passion and humor. There’s a combination of different sides of him you get to see which are a fun challenge for me to play.”
The Caretaker of Corofin premieres July 2-4, 9-11 at 8 p.m. and July 5 and 12 at 3 p.m. at the Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. in Manhattan. Ticket are $15. Visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net or call 212-254-1109 for more.
