FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Thursday 13th April, 8pm
Lislea Dramatic Players
See How They Run
Set in a vicarage at the end of World War 2 where the local vicar has married a west end actress to the consternation of some of the villagers. As the Vicar prepares for a ceremony the next day all turns a bit frantic with unannounced visitors and unwanted visitors. A laugh a minute farce for the whole family.
Friday 14th April, 8pm
Ray Leonard Players
The Kings of The Kilburn High Road
In the mid-1970s, a group of young men left their homes in the West of Ireland and sailed across the sea to England in the hope of making their fortunes and returning home. Twenty-five years later only Jackie Flavin makes it home - but does so in a coffin. The play takes place on the day that the winners and losers of the group meet up to drink to Flavin's memory and looks at their lives and lost dreams. Secrets are revealed and lies are uncovered.
Setting: Set in the back room of an Irish bar in Kilburn on the afternoon of Jackie’s
funeral.
⌚︎ Running time: Act 1 - 50mins, Act2 - 50mins
⚑ Mature content and language
Saturday 15th April, 8pm
St. Patrick's Drama Group
Dear Frankie
Ireland’s first and Radio Éireann’s own agony aunt, Frankie Byrne, whose legendary programme with its ‘Dear Frankie’ letters of advice was broadcast from 1963 to 1985. For over 20 years, Ireland tuned in as Frankie Byrne solved the problems of a nation at lunchtime on Radio Éireann. Lovelorn teenagers, jealous husbands, concerned mammies, all wrote in looking for answers to their problems.
This entertaining, yet poignant, play tracks the life of this glamorous and popular Irish figure as she considers the burning social issues of the time - all the while, concealing deep sorrows in her own life.
Sunday 16th April, 8pm
Wayside Players
The Field
The Field tells the story of the hardened Irish farmer "Bull" McCabe and his love for the land he rents from Mrs Butler and is set in a small country village in southwest Ireland. The rugged Bull McCabe has spent five hard years of labour cultivating a small plot of rented land, nurturing it from barren rock into a fertile field. When the owner of the field decides to auction it, he believes that he has a claim to the land. The McCabes intimidate most of the townspeople out of bidding in the auction, to the chagrin of auctioneer Mick Flanagan, but Galway man William Dee arrives from England where he has lived for many years, with a plan to cover the field with concrete and extract gravel from the adjacent river. An encounter between William and the McCabes ends in William's death and a cover-up.
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Monday 17th April, 8pm
Salmon Eile
The Pitchfork Disney
Presley and Haley, two siblings, live in a squalid flat in a ruined world. Their parents seem to have died years ago, and now they wile away a schizophrenic existence by feeding off chocolate and ‘Mum and Dad’s medicine’. One day however, an interloper appears, and things start to go very wrong.
⚑ Adult Content
Tuesday 18th April, 8pm
Clontarf Players
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest is a theatrical rollercoaster packed with shade, wit and plenty of gags as Oscar Wilde’s ingenious humour succeeds in debunking social pretensions. Two bachelor friends, Algernon Moncrieff and John (Jack) Worthing lead double lives to court the attentions of the desirable Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew. They then must contend with the uproarious consequences of their subterfuge, and with the redoubtable Lady Bracknell. The Importance of Being Earnest is a classic comedy of social manners and is Oscar Wilde’s most successful play.
⌚︎Play Run: Act 1: Algernon's Apartment, Half Moon Street, (Intermission), Act 2: Garden in Jack Worthing's home, (Scene change), Act 3: Library in Jack Worthing's home.
Wednesday 19th April, 8pm
Harvest Moon Theatre Group
God Of Carnage
God of Carnage was written by Yasmina Reza, a French playwright of Israeli ancestry, and was first performed in 2006. Originally written in French, the play was subsequently translated into English by Christopher Hampton in 2008. It is a savage comedy about two sets of parents; the son of one couple has hurt the son of the other couple at a public park. The parents meet to discuss the matter in a civilised manner. What follows is anything but civilised.
⌚︎Run Time: Approx 80 mins, no interval.
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Thursday 20th April, 8pm
Kilmuckridge Drama Group
Sive
Nana and Mena bicker and provoke one another in the small smoky cottage where they live with Sive and Mena’s husband, Mike. While Nana dotes on her orphaned granddaughter, Sive, Mena plots to marry the young girl off to an old local farmer for the promise of land and a chance to escape from poverty. Written in 1959, Sive has become an Irish classic and one of the nation's best loved plays. It is a story about a battle of generations, a country in flux, exploitation, greed, love and tragedy all told with John B's lyrical dialogue and great Irish humour.
Friday 21st April, 8pm
Glenamaddy Players
Proof
On the eve of her 25th birthday, Catherine, a young woman who has spent many years caring for her brilliant but unstable father Robert, must deal not only with his death but with the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire and with the attentions of Hal, a former student of her fathers who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that Robert left behind.“Proof” is a play about scientists, whose science matters less than their humanity, whether loving, rating, encouraging or impeding one another, the four characters in “Proof” are intensely alive, complete and human. Proof won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.
Setting – Back porch of a suburban Chicago house Illinois. The Present