A GIFTED actor and a playwright, whose parents hail from Killarney, has been invited to stage her debut play, Two of Clubs, at the high-profile Listowel Writers’ Week this month.
Although she was brought up in Cork and is now based in Dublin, journalism graduate Jessica Leen said she considers the event to be a homecoming to Kerry given that her parents, Colm Leen and Catherine Courtney, are from Park Road and Ardshanavooley respectively.
“Although I’m a Cork woman by place of birth, I sport a Kerry jersey every year for the All-Ireland,” Jessica told KillarneyToday.com.
Her uncle is Donal Courtney who wrote the God Has No Country, the hit one-man play based on the life story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty and her grandfather, the late Jerry Kelleher from St Brendan’s Terrace, was a gifted amateur actor who stole the show on the Tops of the Town stage year after year.
Jessica opened her debut play last December at Theatre Upstairs in Dublin and it was received brilliantly by audiences, including respected critic Emer O’Kelly whose review said: “Leen has an impressive emotional range as Polly and performing her own jazz score she displays a fairly dazzling voice”.
Two of Clubs, in which Jessica plays the lead role of Polly, is based back in 1938 and as war comes calling, so do her dreams. Choosing to fight her own battles, Polly leaves Cork behind for New York but will the non-conventional route be make or break for the her?
“I’m very proud to have composed a full original score to this play, alongside acclaimed acclaimed Irish musicians Tiz McNamara and Dylan Howe,” said Jessica.
Her play will be staged as part of the lunchtime theatre series in St John’s Theatre in Listowel on Thursday, May 31.
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