She acted in the Tennessee Williams' play, "Sweet Bird of Youth," at the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago, Illinois with Christopher Walken and Pat Corley in the cast. Edward Sherin was director. Laura Crow was costume designer. Lowell Achziger was lighting designer.
She made her Broadway debut with "The Two Mrs Carrolls" in 1943, which
starred the legendary Elisabeth Bergner. It was Bergner and her film director
husband Paul Czinner who persuaded Irene that London was the center of the
English-speaking theatre. She moved there and immediately trained at
the Old Vic in 1944.
