For Mary Kate O’Flanagan, it’s always about the story.
For one thing, she works as a writer and script doctor in television and film.
It was another type of story-telling, though, that raised her profile and has provided the basis for “Making a Show of Myself,” which she is performing currently at the Irish Repertory Theatre.
It came via the Moth, a non-profit dedicated to story-telling that was founded in 1997 and has since grown into an American institution with its live performance events in cities nationwide, the NPR show “The Moth Radio Hour” and its podcasts and books.
“You must abide by the Moth’s rules,” O’Flanagan said, “which is that the story is true, it’s personal and it’s mine.”
It can’t be, “Well, when my cousin was in Australia this happened.”
And it must be no more than 6 minutes, which she sees as another great rule of the Moth’s.
O’Flanagan’s job takes her to Los Angeles from time to time and it was from there at the Moth’s grand slam, a gathering of previous winners, that one of her stories viral.
“The Moth is competitive live story-telling, which puts a kind of shape on it,” she said. “Makes it a bit of craic.”
O’Flanagan’s story on that L.A. night was “Carry Him Shoulder High.” It tells of her and her five sisters’ insistence, against various objections and other issues, that they carry the coffin of their adored father Michael at his funeral, after his unexpected death at age 74.
The Moth had spread its wings beyond America’s shores and it was in her home city of Dublin that O’Flanagan took on the format, initially 11 years ago in the Sugar Club and then on to the grand slam in the main stage of the Abbey Theatre.
“That was amazing to stand in the national theatre and tell a story,” she said.
It was seeing a recording of the L.A. performance, however, that led Irish theatre director Will O’Connell to seek her out.
“We became theatre pals,” O’Flanagan recalled.
At some point, she said to O’Connell, “I feel I’ve got a show in me with my stories.”
He said, “I’ll help you with that.”
“The question was how to weave it together,” O’Flanagan remembered. “What we decided to do was because I’ve spent my life studying story I would interweave the stories with my observations about how stories work.”
“Making a Show of Myself,” which was a hit in Ireland, is built around six stories, one of which clocks in at 18 minutes.
In an interview last week, O’Flanagan speculated about reasons why the story about her father in particular had worked so well in the Moth setting. But first, when asked, she said something about a man who described himself as a “mid-level mandarin for the Irish government.”
He grew up in Dundalk, although his family originated in Athlone. “He identified with Dundalk. He was Louth and proud,” in his daughter’s telling.
His work was to take him, his spouse and six daughters to Copenhagen for a few years.
“My mother always said that if he had a jot of ambition he could’ve run the country,” O’Flanagan recalled. “Because he was a very thoughtful and well-read and intelligent person.”
His daughters were left utterly bereft at his passing, and when asked if the dramatic twist about what helped them cope was what made the story work, O’Flanagan replied, “I was being discouraged from adding that part at the end.”
She summarized the viewpoint, “It’s about carrying the coffin and leave it there.”
The writer added, “I was determined that the end would be included. Everybody’s had an experience of grief. Or if you haven’t lost someone you love you can imagine that someday you will.
“So it’s that feeling of how do we get through those times. The answer should be you’ve got people you love and they’re going to get you through.
“The story takes a turn because that’s not the case in this -- that in fact we’ve found that the people who loved us were exactly the people we couldn’t be around.
“So, there’s a dark secret at the heart of a good story. And that’s the one in this story,” O’Flanagan said.
A friend pointed out another possible reason for its appeal — of the 10 stories told the night of the L.A. grand slam, six revolved around fathers; the other five were fathers who let their children down or were inadequate in some way.
“Carry Him Shoulder High,” in contrast, “is the story about the kind of father that we all wished we had or if we were lucky enough, we did have.
“It’s the ideal of parenthood,” O’Flanagan said, “that not everybody can live up to. But it’s good to know that it can exist.”
“Making a Show of Myself” runs through March 5. For tickets go to irishrep.org.
