S4E5: Aedín Moloney – Saying “Yes!” to a Life on Stage

Irish Stew Podcast

Growing up in a Dublin home with no TV, Aedín turned to books, reading them aloud, drawing out the characters, and letting the words wash over her, which is how at age ten she managed to read James Joyce’s intimidating novel Ulysses.
She was drawn to the rhythms and music in the words of the great writers, no surprise coming from a home with her avid reader mother and her father, Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains.

But she’d feel the lure of the stage and after early acting experiences in Dublin she ventured to London and found success, ironically, considering her upbringing, on television. But New York beckoned, where Aedín has acted in a string of Off Broadway plays often at the famed Irish Repertory Theatre. She has also worked to amplify the voices of women on the stage through the Fallen Angel Theatre Company she founded, focused on Irish and British plays by and about women, which she often performed, directed, or produced.

We talked to Aedín as she was concluding her successful Irish Rep run of Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom, which she and Colum McCann adapted from the closing section of Ulysses, directed by John Keating, with music by Paddy Moloney. It’s a one-woman show where Aiden never leaves the stage for 90 minutes, electrifying for the audience, exhausting for Aedín.

But not so exhausting that she doesn’t want to stop channeling the spirit of Molly Bloom as she and Colum are working to take the show on tour to Ireland and the UK.

And for the second time, Aedín gifts Irish Stew with a passage from Yes!, so be sure to stay to the end when she brings Molly to vibrant life performing the “Mulvey’s Letter” section of Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy.

Links:

• Website: http://www.aedinmoloney.com/
• Fallen Angel website: https://www.fallenangeltheatre.org/homeofficialsite
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AedinMoloney
• Fallen Angel Twitter: https://twitter.com/FallenAngelNY
• Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom: https://irishrep.org/show/2021-2022-season/yes-reflections-of-molly-bloom-3/

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Reading Ulysses at 10 (00:02:13)

3. Growing up in Dublin (00:08:12)

4. Get a Feed of Telly (00:12:20)

5. Math and the Moloney's (00:14:26)

6. Being Paddy Moloney's Daughter (00:19:04)

7. Becoming an Actor (00:22:45)

8. Building an Acting Career in London (00:28:22)

9. Moving to NYC (00:30:04)

10. Adapting, Becoming and Living with Molly Bloom (00:33:44)

11. The Challenge of a One Person Show (00:44:26)

12. Audience Actor Relationship (00:48:29)

13. When Things Don't Go Right on Stage (00:52:02)

14. Aedín's Seamus Plug (00:54:19)

15. Recap with John and Martin (00:57:28)

16. YES! Reflections of Molly Bloom - Mulvey Section (00:58:48)

17. Credits (01:04:25)