Gunman coming to Kilmuckridge

THERE WILL be high drama in Kilmuckridge later this month as the annual Kilmuckridge Drama Festival gets under way.

The festival which runs from Friday, February 24 until Saturday, March 4 will be adjudicated by Jim Wolstencroft and sees nine plays being staged in the Kilmuckridge Memorial Hall.

Kicking off the festival on Friday night will be a performance of The Shadow of a Gunman by Sean O’Casey by the hosts, Kilmuckridge Drama Group who are performing in the open section.

In the play Donal Davoren and Seamus Shields are room mates in a Dublin Tenement. For no particular reason Donal is looked upon by the other residents of the tenements as being a gunman in the service of the Irish Republican Party, but he is merely a dreaming poet who rather enjoys the mystery that has been built up around him.

One of the Republicans calls on Donal Seamus and leaves a bag containing bombs in their rooms. When the house is raided by the auxiliaries, Minnie Powell, a friend offers to hide the bag in her room, never dreaming that they would search her. But the deed is discovered and Minnie while trying to resist is shot.

On Saturday night the Sillan Players will perform in the confined section with The Trappe Family by Seamus O’Rouke.

Sunday night will see the Schull Drama Group take to the stage in the Confined Section with their performance of Last of the Red Hot Lovers by Neil Simon while on Monday night another local group, Kilrush Drama Group, will put on their production of Hedda Gabler by Mark O’Rowe performing in the Open Section.

Hedda Gabler is something to everyone, yet has no idea who she is to herself. Trapped by convention and by her own irreconciliable nature, will she have the resolve to shape her own destiny? Mark O’Rowe brings his unique linguistic style to this new adaptation.

Wexford’s Ballycogley Players will bring a double helping on local flavour to the festival on Tuesday night with their performance of Billy Roche’s Lay Me Down Softly. Ballycogley will perform in the Confined Section.

Lay Me Down Softly is set in the early 1960s Ireland. The play takes the audience into the burlesque world of the carnival and the boxing academy of Delaney’s Travelling Roadshow with its intriguing cast of characters. It is owned by Theo Delaney, with all newcomners invited to match their fists against the unbeaten resident fighter Dean. The arrival of Emer, Theo’s long lost daughter and a challenge from a professional boxer about to change everything in the rundown sideshow forever. It is a mythical tale of love, loss and pain suffused with Roche’s trademark blend of humour and pathos.

On Wednesday night there will be another Wexford performance, this time in the open section, when Bridge Drama takes to the stage with An Inspector Calls by JB Priestly.

The final Wexford performance of the festival will be on Thursday night when Portia Coughlan by Marina Carr will be performed by the Wexford Drama Group in the open section.

On Friday night, March 3, Prosperous Dramatic Society will perform The Play About The Baby by Edward Albee in the open section.

Closing the festival on Saturday night will be Take 5 from Co Cork who will perform The Telephone Exchange by Niamh Gleeson in the confined section.

Each play takes place nightly at 8pm and tickets which cost €10 for adults and €5 for children are available on the door each night.