Kanturk playwrights on ‘Staged’ at Glash

‘STAGED’, a performance of plays by local playwrights as well as a recitation from the award-winning musician Jayne Harrington, will take place for the third time at Glash Community Centre at 8pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week, March 28-30.

The plays are written by Mike Guerin, Isabelle O’Connor, Mary Angland and Aidan O’Keeffe. The latter plays will be of particular interest to Kanturk people as both writers live in the town.

Mary Angland’s play is ‘Coffee Break’ - when two noted gossips meet over a cuppa no one is safe from their wagging tongues. The actors are Noelene Quinn, Celine Doody, Sarah Carroll and Martin O’ Riordan.

This comedy received a rapturous reception in 2014 in Friar’s Gate Theatre, Kilmallock, so expectations are high that it will once more be a hit with audiences.

‘Ballet On Sand’ is Aidan O’Keeffe’s play. The setting is a betting shop at lunch-time where Lawrence has big decisions to make about life; and also the 2.22 race at Crayford greyhound track. The play is a monologue performed by well-known Kanturk actor Martin O’Riordan.

‘Ballet On Sand’ is the seventh in Aidan’s series of 11 plays, entitled ‘Ferric Lassoes’, loosely inspired by the songs on the Prefab Sprout album ‘Steve McQueen’. The previous six were performed in venues in Clonakilty, the Cork Arts Theatre and at last year’s Staged event in Glash.

The eighth and ninth plays in the series are getting their premieres in Inverness, Scotland in June and the final pair are scheduled to be performed in Cushendall, Co. Antrim in August.

Planning is underway to publish Ferric Lassoes once all of the 11 plays have been staged, so audiences in Glash this week have a chance to see the world premiere of a work before it appears in print.