Rehearsals begin in earnest for 'The Derry Yank'

Rehearsals have begun in earnest for local author Eamonn Lynch’s debut play The Derry Yank.

With curtain up in St Columb’s Hall on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1, cast members, Maeve Connelly (Maggie), Gerry Doherty (Martin Duffy) and Pat Lynch (Kieran McGowan) are being put through their paces by director Michael Poynor, late of this parish.

Playwright Eamonn Lynch with Director Michael Poynor at 'The Derry Yank' rehearsals.

Speaking to Derry News, Gerry said he had been “excited” to take his part because Eamonn was a “new writer on the scene”.
“I also loved the whole concept of the play,” he smiled. “We’ve all met a Derry Yank down the years.

“As the play begins, we meet a guy who has come back to Derry after an absence of 45 years and we wonder, ‘What took him away in the first instance and what brought him back again?’

“I have the play in its formative stages and now it is developing, I am very excited about the finished product. I might be a wee bit biased but I think it is great.

Maggie (Maeve Connelly) and Martin (Gerry Doherty) having a moment in 'The Derry Yank'.

“I would encourage people to come along because it’s a Derry cast, it’s a Derry writer and we are going back into St Columb’s Hall.

“Hopefully, it’ll not be the last time we are in St Columb’s Hall. We are revitalising the Hall in terms of theatre. For all those reasons, I’d say come and see The Derry Yank because it is good to get a laugh sometimes and you might get a cry as well,” said Gerry.

Reluctant to divulge too much of the play’s plot, Gerry said it would resonate with local audiences.

“Everyone will be watching The Derry Yank thinking, ‘I know somebody like that’ or ‘I didn’t know that’. They’ll be shocked and surprised and they’ll go away saying, ‘We had a good night out’.

“So long as people go away and say to themselves, ‘I had a good night out’, whether they be crying, whether they be laughing, whether they be happy or sad, as long as they go through a gamut of emotions and leave the theatre having having been entertained, that’s all we want.”

Maeve Connelly, whose day job is teaching drama at Thornhill College, plays Maggie - the very good friend of Kieran, the friend the Derry Yank has come home to see.

According to Maeve, Maggie lands in on the two men. “She likes a bit of gossip and they get chatting,” she added.

“Maggie is quite a sensitive character,” added Maeve, “and she has a backstory which is revealed in the play and there is a flashback and it is quite harrowing. It is not for the fainthearted.

“I don’t want to give too much away but it represents a very key event or incident that happened to women during the Troubles. So Maggie is purged of that and she also helps the other two characters to purge their issues and secrets and skeletons.

“I got involved in The Derry Yank because Eamonn had seen me in ‘The Bog Couple’ and liked what I did. Initially he told me he had written this play for two men and wanted to write a part for a female character.

“That was a year and a half ago. It took him a while to think about how to get my character and what to do with it.

“I was intrigued that I was a female character who was attached to these two men but it was not a romantic interest and she had a role in bringing them together and bringing them to some sort of peace - a cathartic thing,” said Maeve, who added she loved the role, now she had a script.

Maeve described Maggie as “a voice of women maybe through the troubles that maybe wouldn’t have been heard that much”.
She added: “That makes what Maggie has to say important and different. It probably needs to be talked about, like so many things in the troubles.

“The Derry Yank will resonate with audiences. It is a very truthful play. Maggie was a victim. She was a victim of falling in love.

“I think the play will show how trauma took lots of different forms. There is hurt there and there are so many stories that still have to be told and heard and that is all part of moving on to a new era of peace.

“I also think audiences will like the humour. It is very funny. There is lots of classic Derry humour in it. There is real darkness and tragedy as well, which I think is a great gift of Eamonn’s to be able to put that together.”

We might never know what drew prolific actor Pat Lynch to the role of Kieran in his brother Eamonn’s play.

“It becomes very obvious from the first word in The Derry Yank something has to be resolved,” he said. “You have a lingering 45-year-old resentment and the possibility of what else might come up in that period of time.”

“The play deals with all that but it deals with it through the medium of Derry humour, Derry crabbitness, Derry vindictiveness and all things Derry that we love so well.”

He added: “I thought it was a very honest script. I thought it was very honest in its approach and I liked the humour in it.

“I am a great admirer of dealing with serious issues through humour as well. I think the play captures a terrible lot of stuff that initially, in the first couple of drafts, I thought were not going to appear but they did.

“Eamonn’s writing process went on and our input into it went on and things began to develop. I think what we have now is a good comedy drama but also a night’s entertainment, which I think is very important if an audience comes to the theatre.

“As actors, we want them to leave feeling they've been entertained, as well as all of the other things - sadness, happiness, laughter and tears. Enjoyment is crucial.”

He added: “The Derry Yank also contains a huge amount of nostalgia in terms of the names and place names and shops that are mentioned. That will take audiences down memory lane.”

Michael Poynor described the play as “a clever balance between humour and tragedy”.

“This balance is difficult to find,” he added, “and I think Eamonn has navigated through it extremely well.”

St Columb’s Hall embracing ‘The Derry Yank’

Theatre: Local play being staged in one of Derry’s most iconic venues

Eamonn Lynch's 'The Derry Yank' celebrates homecoming at St Columb's Hall

With its blend of humour, heart, and nostalgia, ‘The Derry Yank’ promises to be a poignant celebration of homecoming and the enduring bonds of friendship

“We are currently in the very early days of rehearsal, with a long way to go to opening night but already we are feeling very positive and I see potential for The Derry Yank to travel far beyond St Columb's Hall.

“With any new play, it is a fascinating voyage.”

Tickets for The Derry Yank can be bought online at: www.stcolumbshall.com or in person from Christopher in Ferry Clever in Bishop Street or Jenni in Little Acorns Bookstore in Great James Street. Tickets cost £18 or concession £16.”