Much ado about a star cast playing in Ireland
THERE’S an air of summer round the palace as Poldark stars Heida Reed and Max Bennett watch BAFTA award-winning Dubliner Deirdre Mullins run through her lines in the sunshine.
But this talent is not gathered in a prestigious London theatre, instead it’s in a small pocket of Co. Roscommon where the Pilgrim Players have set up camp for the second year in a row. Mullins and her partner Bennett have gathered actors from stage and screen for four performances of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Bishop’s Palace in Ballaghaderreen, the home of Bennett’s best friend David Ewing and his wife Chloe.
‘This is our second year,’ Mullins says of the Pilgrim Players event. ‘We started off this mad idea, pet project last year when Dave and Chloe bought the house in June last year. ‘Max and Dave are best friends from years ago. We knew that Dave and Chloe were moving over and we thought it would be a great way of introducing them into the community as they were moving into a big house in the area and it had never been open to the public before as it had been in the Church’s hands for 100 years.
‘And then six weeks later we staged a full-blown play in their gardens and invited the whole town in. It’s still very much an evolving project but it went down a storm last year.
‘People absolutely loved it and we got so many messages so we thought ‘Ah sure why not do it again and get more people over and see what happens.’
The palace is also known as Edmonstown House and was built in 1864 by Captain Arthur Robert Costello. It was designed by John McCurdy who remodelled the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin but purchased by the Catholic Church in 1892 when Costello fell into debt.
‘There was a huge amount of curiosity for people who wanted to come and see the house and the grounds so this allows them to do that and that is part of the pleasure of the experience,’ Mullins says.
The cast list is even more impressive than the grounds though, with a list of actors including Aidan Kelly, Tom Weston-Jones and Lydia Wilson to name but three more.
And it’s really a labour of love for those involved, Mullins says.
‘It’s basically a way for us to socialise and see all these brilliant pals of ours,’ she adds. ‘The thing about our business is that you work with someone which is where you usually meet them and make friends with them but
you rarely work with them a second time in your career.
‘So this is a really nice way of acting with people that you’ve really enjoyed acting with before and it’s also a great social experience.
‘We got all our friends really people from different backgrounds that we’d met over the years that we had trained with in drama school or worked with before so it is a real motley crew.’
Heida, of course, played Elizabeth Warleggan in Poldark while Max was the dastardly Mon Adderly in the series which is how Heida came to be in the cast. Max was also recently seen in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
‘Patrick Kennedy we both worked with on Measure For Measure 10 years ago,’ Mullins adds.
‘A lot of the cast are English and have never been to Ireland before so for them it is a beautiful way to get to know Ireland a little bit and see the west of Ireland.’
After last year’s performance of Much Ado About Nothing, the Ewings received gifts of wine and homemade marmalade from people who were grateful for the experience of seeing so many top quality actors in such a beautiful setting. And the social media site for Pilgrim Players hopped with messages from parents whose children were still talking about the play weeks later. This year, the stellar cast is delivering four performances with an afternoon matinee on Saturday that’s free for children under 14. You can also come along an hour early and enjoy a picnic in the palace grounds, now a family home for the Ewings. ‘Hopefully we are bringing some really fun, exciting accessible Shakespeare to people,’ Mullins says. ‘For children who have yet to study Shakespeare in school or who are studying it now, it brings it to them in a joyous way. Kids are free on Saturday to make sure families can afford to come and give children the opportunity to see it.’ Last year people in the know came from all over the country to bag a seat at the performances which take place tonight, tomorrow and Sunday, four in all. And with just €18 for the entrance fee, it’s an experience not to be missed if you are in the area. You can pay on the night or reserve a place via the website pilgrimplayers.co.uk. ‘We were surprised how it captured people’s imaginations last year,’ Mullins says. ‘But it comes from a joyous place.’