Ballinamore Drama Festival gets underway this weekend

The 41st annual Ballinamore Drama Festival commences in the Island Theatre, Ballinamore, on Sunday night, March 5.

The festival runs for seven nights, starting at 8pm and closes on Sunday, March 12. Season tickets, costing €55 for the seven nights, are on sale in Murphy’s shop, St. Brigid Street, or at the ticket office. Admission nightly is €10.

The adjudicator this year is Paddy Farrelly. Paddy is the Technical Manager at the Ramor Theatre Virginia and Townhall Theatre Cavan. Paddy directed Trad by Mark Doherty for Millrace Drama Group and went on to win the Claregalway cup, in the Confined Finals in 2013. Having worked in direction, acting and production he holds a vast knowledge and experience of theatre and the amateur drama circuit. Paddy holds an MA in Theatre Studies from University College Dublin

There are three groups, from Pomeroy, Clontarf and Glenamaddy, competing in the Confined Section and groups from Dalkey, Lifford and two from Wexford, in the Open Section.

Sunday, March 5: Dalkey Players, Dublin, open the Festival with Marina Carr’s ‘By the Bog of Cats’ a tale of forgiveness, vengeance and disparate forces figure in the tangled history embodied in a woman’s powerful drama as it makes its way through heartbreak and, occasionally, hilarity, and the secrets of her tangled history are revealed.

Monday, March 6: Pomeroy Players, Tyrone, perform ‘The Hen Party Epiphany’ by Jimmy Murphy. Should some secrets never be kept no matter what the cost? As this play unfolds, we see five women, one by one, forced to confront awkward truths of their own lives.

Tuesday, March 7: No Performance.

Wednesday, March 8: Lifford Players, Donegal, perform ‘When Elephants Collide’ written by Donegal man Edward Flanagan. A tale of inheritance. A family in crisis. A father who doesn’t know which child to trust with his legacy. This fast-paced play is interwoven with sibling rivalry, jealousy and greed set in 21st century Ireland still anchored to 19th century traditions.

Thursday, March 9: Clontarf Player, Dublin, bring us ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest is a classic comedy of social manners and is Oscar Wilde’s most successful play.

Friday, March 10: Wexford Drama Group, Wexford, perform ‘The Father’ by Florian Zeller (Translation by Christopher Hampton). In a darkly humorous and deeply poignant translation by Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller’s ‘The Father’ is a tragi-comic mystery, a sobering and realistic family story, and an unsentimental, emotionally intense look at aging.

Saturday, March 11: Ballycogley Players Drama Group, Wexford stage ‘The Red Iron’ by Jim Nolan.

As crowds gather on Wexford’s quay to greet the county’s vanquished All-Ireland hurling team the now middle-aged members of a teenage gang return to the city’s 4n Bridge to remember their recently deceased friend.

Sunday, March 12: The Festival concludes with the Glenamaddy Players performance of ‘Proof’ written by David Auburn. Proof is a play about scientists, whose science matters less that their humanity, whether loving, rating, encouraging or impeding one another, the four characters in Proof are intensely alive, complete and human.

Proof won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.

Ballinamore Drama Festival Committee look forward to welcoming all our patrons to another enthralling festival week.