“A Bolt from D’Blue” by David Gilna World premiere, at the New York Irish Center.

A fast-emerging media figure in Ireland, the playwright, filmmaker and actor, David Gilna was set to tour “A Bolt from D’Blue” in America, supported by Culture Ireland, from March to June last year, but, as if by a strike of lightning, the tour was scrapped due to the pandemic. Finally, Gilna gets to world premiere “A Bolt from D’Blue” (in his New York acting debut) at 1st Irish… his electrifying story of being hit by lightning on a beautiful sunny day in Boston. Highly acclaimed for his plays “My Bedsit Window,” and “The Unsung Hero” (and his films “Ya Clown” and “One for the Ditch”), Gilna, who lives in the Dublin suburb of Swords, has been called “an electrifying entertainer” by The Sunday World, and “a gifted playwright and performer” by the Irish Independent. The Irish Times has said, “The charismatic David Gilna mezmerizes on stage.” Directed by Andy O’Reilly.