BEVERLY — A law firm named O'Brien & O'Brian would fit right in on Western Avenue in Beverly.
"O'Brien & O'Brian" is actually the name of a play written by North Beverly playwright John Enright and inspired by his life on the far Southwest Side.
The romantic comedy set in a law office and explores themes including Irish heritage, Catholicism and homophobia. The play begins as a client walks into the office and asks to speak to a lawyer named O'Brien — or is it O'Brian?
The 1-hour-and-20-minute play opens as part of the New York International Fringe Festival on Friday. The show will be performed five times over the course of the 16-day festival that includes some 200 shows and 1,100 live performances.
"Beverly people who liked the play said, 'I don't know if this would play in Beverly,'" Enright said, fresh from rehearsals on Thursday.
"O'Brien & O'Brian" debuted in August 2013 at the Dream Theater Co. in Lincoln Square. The show ran for four weeks and received positive reviews. The experience led Enright to follow the advice of a friend and submit his play for consideration at Fringe Fest.
"He said, 'It's good for your career to have a play that runs in New York,'" Enright said.
Ideally, Enright hopes his play will appeal to a New York producer who decides to perform the show for an extended run off-Broadway. This was the path of the now mainstream play "Urinetown," he said.
Perhaps enlivened by his New York debut, Enright has already begun work on his latest play, "All Mixed Up." The comedy focuses on a lesbian couple who are on the verge of a break-up just as they're expecting a baby.
Enright wrote poetry and fiction for years before taking a 2001 course in playwriting with the Chicago Dramatists in West Town. He decided to make the switch after receiving praise for the dialogue in his fictional stories and criticism for his descriptive paragraphs.
But in playwriting, the dialogue is everything, and Enright prefers stories that make people laugh. His first play, "Collision Course" is a rhyming story about a woman who refuses to accept a kidney from her estranged sister because of their political differences.
Enright, a graduate of St. Ignatius College Prep in University Village, also works as an information technology consultant in Chicago. But he's hoping his talents as a playwright shine through in the coming weeks in New York.
"It's funny," Enright said of "O'Brien & O'Brian." "The guy working the light board said he liked it a lot."
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