2013-2014

A Healthy Grave

SIMON BRETT / MARCH - APRIL 2014

This charming play features Hilary and Robert Travers, a retired childless couple who were prominent academics in their careers,

now faced with spending their time together living quietly in the country. Once the life and soul of the university,

Robert is now confined to telling all his anecdotes to Hilary, who has, of course, heard them all many times before!

There are many touching scenes between them as well as very funny moments.

Each has a secret. However, each one knows about the other’s secret, but they play along with this in a most interesting way.

CAST

Robert Travers: Colm Ó Maolmhuire

Hilary Travers: Mary Cauldwell

Voices

Telephone Message Operator: Carol Boylan

Julian Baraclough: Jim Gibney

Keith Fulton: Phil Hughes

CREW

Director: Áine McGuinness

Stage Manager: Aga Daly

Lighting: Richard Norman-Wright, Rory Norman-Wright

Sound: Ronald Jones

Set Design, Construction and Decor: Billy Fitzgerald, Paul Jordan, Eugene Osborne, Kevin O’Malley, Rita McCarthy, Carol Boylan, Catherine Noone, Stephen Daly, Mati Daly

Wardrobe: Máire Keogh

Continuity: Marianne Gibney

Front of House: Carol Boylan, Rita McCarthy, Ethna McQuillan and Group Members

Programme: Ronald Jones, Kevin O’Malley

Poster/Programme Design: fastnetgraphics

Rehearsal Photographs: Daily Photography

Announcements: Richard Norman-Wright

MANY YOUNG MEN OF TWENTY

John B. Keane / February 2014

Against a background of unemployment and emigration in Ireland of the 1960s, Many Young Men of Twenty centers on Peg, a servant girl who has had a child out of wedlock.

Abandoned by her boyfriend, she now finds herself being courted by two new suitors, but which one will she choose?

Throw in a cast of fifteen, a fortune teller, a crooked politician, a Holy Josie and an erotic dancer, and you are guaranteed a great night’s hilarious entertainment, particularly with that magic ingredient – the writing of John B. Keane. With live accompaniment on stage by traditional Irish musicians, the play features original songs and music throughout.

CAST

Danger Mullally:Andy Geraghty

Peg: Jane Mehigan

Seelie: Louise Keating

Tom: Dave McGloughlin

Dawheen Timineen Din: Michael McKenna

Maynan: Rita McCarthy

Kevin: Adam Burke

Dinny: Adam Scott

Maurice: Gerard Grimes

Dot: Amie Doyle

Kitty Curley: Carol Boylan

J.J. Houlihan, TD: Liam Shannon

Johnny Houlihan: Shane McInerney

Maggie: Leah Coleman

Sadhbh: Éabha Geraghty

CREW

Director: Kevin O’Malley

Stage Manager: Aga Daly

Lighting and Sound: Richard Norman-Wright, Rory Norman-Wright

Set Design: Kevin O’Malley

Set Construction and Decor: Billy Fitzgerald, Paul Jordan, Eugene Osborne, Ronald Jones, Adam Scott, Michael McKenna 

Wardrobe: Máire Keogh

Front of House: Mary Shannon, Martine Healy, Suzanne Healy, Pat Lacey, Aisling Coleman, Hannah Coleman, Catherine Noone, Lizzy Noone, Eugene Osborne and Members

Poster Design: Kevin O’Malley

Programme: Ronald Jones, Kevin O’Malley

Rehearsal Photographs: Daily Photography

Announcements: Richard Norman-Wright

Choreography: Éabha Geraghty

1959 Evening Echo: Image Depot 

Musicians

Grace Dowling: Button accordion, tin whistle, concertina

Gary Weldon: Guitar, bouzouki

Brian Hurley: Bodhrán

DANCING AT LUGHNASA

Brian Friel

OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2013

This extraordinary play is the story of five unmarried Munday sisters eking out their lives in the small village of Ballybeg in Ireland in 1936. We meet them at the time of the festival of Lughnasa, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest. The action of the play is told through the memory of the illegitimate son of one of the sisters as he remembers the five women who raised him, his mother and four maiden aunts. He is only seven in 1936, the year his elderly uncle Jack, a priest, returns after serving for twenty-five years as a missionary in a Ugandan leper colony.

For the young boy, two other disturbances occur that summer. The sisters acquire their first radio and he meets his father for the first time, a charming Welsh drifter. From these small events spring the cracks that destroy the foundation of the family forever.

In Dancing at Lughnasa he employs the central motif of dancing and music to explore themes of Irish cultural identity, nostalgia, historical change, and pagan ritual. Widely regarded as Brian Friel's masterpiece, this haunting play is Friel's tribute to the spirit and valour of the past.

CAST

Michael: Rory Keary

Kate: Pat Lacey

Maggie: Aisling Coleman

Aggie: Emma Gallagher

Rosie: Lizzy Noone

Chris: Jane Mehigan

Gerry: Adam Burke

Jack: Colm O'Maolmhuire

CREW

Director: Ronald Jones

Producer: Carol Boylan

Stage Management: Aga Daly

Set Design: Ronald Jones

Set Construction/Decor: Billy Fitzgerald, Paul Jordan, Eugene Osborne, Kevin O’Malley, Deirdre Allen

Lighting: Richard Norman-Wright, Rory Norman-Wright

Sound: Ronald Jones

Sound Editing: Graham Tully    

Costumes: Máire Keogh

Properties: Suzanne Healy

Kites: Poppy Sheridan    

Front of House: Áine McGuinness and Group Members

Poster: fastnetgraphics

Poster Photograph: Shenick Island Photography

Programme: Ronald Jones, Kevin O’Malley

Photographs: Daily Photography