The Black Wolfe Tone

Fishamble: The New Play Company and The Irish Repertory Theatre New York present:
The Black Wolfe Tone
Written by Kwaku Fortune
Directed by Nicola Murphy Dubey

The Black Wolfe Tone is a thrilling new play about identity, raging against the machine, and how young men deal or don’t deal, with the darkness. A fast-paced journey that interrogates our culture of silence, the mind, and growing up mixed race in Ireland. At its heart, it’s about a young boy seeking forgiveness. The inner child wanting only to be acknowledged, loved, and held.

In 2022, Fishamble: The New Play Company and Irish Repertory Theatre founded the Transatlantic Commissions Programme to address head-on the historical inequalities in representation that have existed in the theatrical canon. Together, the two companies commissioned four Black Irish artists and writers of colour. 

FELISPEAKS, Kwaku Fortune, Jade Jordan, and CN Smith, worked with Obie Award-winning playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Dael Orlandersmith, as mentor to create new works. With the support of Culture Ireland, the four works-in-progress were presented as readings in Project Arts Centre Dublin, Irish Repertory Theatre New York, Los Angeles Public Library, and San Francisco Public Library. 

In 2023-24, the Transatlantic Commissions Residency developed these plays further, culminating in readings in Dublin and New York in 2024. This was supported by the Arts Council, through the International Residency Initiatives Scheme. The Black Wolfe Tone by Kwaku Fortune was one of these plays, and is being produced by Fishamble and Irish Rep in 2025, in the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York, and on tour in Ireland, at Project Arts Centre, Mermaid Arts Centre, and Cork Arts Theatre in association with the Everyman as part of Cork Midsummer Festival. ​