New play on Dylan Thomas' time in Glenlough to premier this week

A new play premieres this week focussing on Dylan Thomas’ summer in Donegal.

The Welsh poet spent the summer of 1935 living in a remote thatched cottage in Glenlough, between Ardara and Glencolmcille.

There, he worked on several poems during this period, including “Altarwise by owl-light,” and “I in my intricate Image.” both of  which reflect some of the area’s wild natural beauty he encountered.

However Thomas’s time in south west Donegal was also marked by his engagement with a local drinking product, poitín.

Shaun Byrne’s new play, One Night in Glenlough, will premier in September in the Balor Theatre on Thursday and Friday, September 26 and 27, with further shows in Halla Mhuire, Glencolmcille on Saturday, September 28, and The Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon on Sunday, September 29.

The madcap plot deals with the summer Thomas spent in Donegal and some of the shenanigans he got up to in the area. 

Written by Ballybofey playwright Byrne, and produced by the Balor Theatre, this production sees two other Twin Towns men involved, Director Charlie Bonner and actor Frankie McCafferty. The part of Thomas himself is played by Aidan Moriarty.

Thomas came as he himself wrote for ‘clean living’, to escape the ‘bright lights’ of London that had seduced the rising poetic star and to work on his second collection Twenty Five poems. 

He stayed in a thatched cottage, rented from Dan Ward, a converted shed really that the American painter Rockwell Kent had used ten years previously as an art studio. 

The rugged beauty of Donegal captivated Thomas. At the start the isolation of the area, free from urban distractions, allowed him to focus on his writing. 

While he became involved in the vibrant social life of the Irish-speaking community, enjoying nights of storytelling, music, and drinking in local pubs he also fell out with others and left hastily under a cloud. 

It could be said that the Irish literary tradition and oral storytelling somewhat  reinforced even influenced his own developing writing style, increasing his love for lyrical language and rhythm.

The play itself imagines a last fateful night and weaves together Dylan’s verse with more traditional poetry, song and prayer from the area. 

Forbidden to speak his native tongue at home, even though both his parents were fluent Welsh Gaelic speakers, the idea of the loss of language and identity is also explored. 

As Thomas himself once said: “A nation without a language is a nation without a heart.’”

This summer in Donegal offered Thomas both creative inspiration and a temporary escape from his turbulent personal life in London and Wales. Soon after his return to London he met future wife Caithlin McNamara. Though he only stayed for a brief period, Donegal’s stark natural beauty and rich culture left an indelible mark on his poetic imagination.