Six actors. More than 40 characters. One very unruly Dublin.

DeSales University opens its 2026-’27 theater season with “Dublin by Lamplight,” Michael West’s fast-moving, comic and ultimately poignant look at Dublin in 1904, when Irish nationalism, British rule and the emerging Irish theater movement collided.

Directed by David Pica, the show follows a group of struggling theater artists trying to stage “The Wooing of Emer,” a bold nationalist play meant to help establish an Irish national theater.

With the British monarch visiting, poverty all around them and political tensions growing, their ambitious opening night becomes increasingly chaotic.

Six actors drive the show, switching between more than 40 characters at impressive speed. Sometimes a shift in posture, a new cadence or a quick costume adjustment is all it takes to introduce a whole new person.

The acting style draws heavily on Commedia dell’arte, making the performances intentionally bold and exaggerated. The players seem to have stepped out of a storybook or political cartoon.

Their faces may be covered in paint, but their characters continue to wear their hearts on their sleeves.

Greysen Kesler provides a strong center as Willie, the increasingly desperate figure trying to keep the production from falling apart.

Teddy Novak brings a volatile energy to Frank, whose theatrical ambitions are matched by some decidedly unconventional interests.

Chloe Russell makes Eva’s faded theatrical grandeur comic and sympathetic.

Ian Higgins provides a romantic presence amid the escalating disorder.

Olivia Lucano gives Maggie a sharp, practical energy, moving comfortably between the worlds of the stage and backstage.

Joshua Bridges brings a grounded physicality to Jimmy, helping establish the sense that somebody has to keep the entire operation standing.

The actors onstage are trying to invent an Irish national theater. The DeSales actors are simultaneously recreating those performers for us.

The play-within-the-play therefore becomes more than a device. It creates a series of reflections: actors playing actors who are performing a story about a nation trying to decide how it wants to see itself.

Pica keeps that theatrical machinery moving at a brisk pace. With the actors constantly changing characters and locations, the production could easily become confusing. Fortunately, the physicality of the performances and the clarity of the characterizations keep the chaos readable.

The production’s set reinforces the same idea. Scenic designer David Gallo’s timeworn brick facade, arched doorway, raised platform and exterior stairway establish a convincing version of turn-of-the-century Dublin without attempting to create a completely realistic city.

The large red curtains surrounding the doorway are particularly effective, adding a theatrical self-awareness.

The lamplight is the landmark set piece, always reminding the audience of the duality between the play’s namesake and the theatrical illusion we are being asked to accept.

The historically-accurate costumes, designed by Janus Stefanowicz, provide a useful counterbalance. They firmly locate the characters in 1904, even as the acting style deliberately pushes away from realism.

The tension works: The world looks historically-grounded while the stylistically-exaggerated performances draw our attention to the fact that we are watching history being performed.

The sound design deserves particular credit. Matthew Mastronardi’s sound design and music coordination, combined with Alayna Lino’s live Foley work, are essential to the production’s world-building.

Lino is visible to the audience, producing sounds in response to the actors’ movements rather than allowing the effects to disappear into a conventional sound system. Movements, impacts and the countless small noises that normally pass unnoticed become part of the performance.

This works particularly well because much of the production relies on a display of theatrical mime. The actors often suggest rather than physically create what they are doing.

A movement can stand in for an object. Two actors can mime a physical altercation while looking directly at the audience. An imaginary action becomes real because the performers and audience agree to treat it as real.

An actor mimes the action, Lino supplies the sound, and the audience fills in the rest.

That is the key characteristic of “Dublin by Lamplight.” The production continually shows us how theater is made while simultaneously asking us to believe in the world being created.

Irish folk music adds another layer to that process. Traditional songs are adapted to fit the production, helping establish the period and the growing sense of Irish cultural identity. Along with the lighting, movement and period costumes, the music gives the production a recognizable historical atmosphere without allowing the history to become a museum piece.

The characters are not simply fighting for Ireland. They are performing Ireland through mythology, heroic stories, language, music and an ambitious dream.

These performers live in poverty and political uncertainty, under a government that is not their own. Still, they believe that making theater is important. They are trying to create something beautiful under difficult circumstances.

“Dublin by Lamplight” ultimately asks a question that extends well beyond 1904 Dublin: Why do artists keep making theater when the world around them is fractured?

The answer here isn’t that theater can fix history. It can’t.

It cannot end poverty. It cannot remove political oppression. It cannot change what has already happened.

But it can bear witness.

And it can give people a place to imagine something different.

The setting may be Dublin in 1904.

The question is much closer to home: What can theater do when the world needs changing?

“Dublin by Lamplight,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1, 2, 7, 8, 9; 2 p.m. Oct. 3, 4, 10, 11; 9:45 a.m. Oct. 5, DeSales Act 1 Theatre, Main Stage Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-3192; https://www.desales.edu