AN acclaimed play based on real-life testimonies of female relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims is coming to Letterkenny this week.
4 Days in Derry, written and directed by Bernadette MacFarland, will be staged for one night in An Grianán Theatre on Thursday, April 23.
Following two sell-out shows in the Millennium Forum in January 2025, the Movers & Shakers theatre group opted to go on tour this year, where a 17-strong cast has performed to packed houses in South Derry, Armagh and Buncrana.
Bernadette said: “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to perform in the wonderful An Grianán Theatre. We met with the team there last week and were so impressed with the calibre of the facilities.
“It is a beautiful space that will lend itself very well to the intimate nature of our play, which tells the moving and harrowing stories of the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the 13 men who were gunned down in cold blood by British paratroopers. in January 1972.”
Top of the list
The playwright, who also plays the part of Kathleen Kelly, mother of teenage victim Michael Kelly, said Donegal was top of the list when she was considering where to tour.
“The people here have always been enormously supportive of the campaign for justice for the victims of Bloody Sunday and this play is part of that endeavour to ensure that the atrocities carried out by state forces on innocent civilians, and the devastating impact it had on their families, are never forgotten.
“We sold out in St Mary’s Hall in Buncrana back in January and the response was unbelievable. So many people came up to us after it was over to thank us for bringing the play there and saying how moving they had found it.
“We were so humbled and overwhelmed by the support and generosity extended to us by our Donegal neighbours and are excited to be coming back here again next week.”
4 Days in Derry came into being after Bernadette sat down with female relatives of the victims and listened to their personal accounts of the four days in and around one of the worst atrocities of The Troubles.
Poignant
What they told her formed the basis of thirteen powerful and poignant monologues that are delivered in the second half of play.
“Those interviews are an experience I will never forget,” she said. “I laughed with them. I cried with them. They told me how they coped – and didn’t cope. I came away from each interview thinking, ‘What strong women’; what strong, strong women’.
“When it was performed for the first time in 2024, I was not prepared for the reaction. I could hear people crying in the audience. The actors delivering the monologues were emotional because they needed to be, but also because they were overwhelmed by the words they were speaking, which were full of rage, grief, pain and loss.
“I think the play has resonated with people because of its authenticity – the words being spoken on the stage are literally the words of the actual women the actors are portraying.”
4 Days in Derry is on in An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, on Thursday, April 23rd.
Tickets are available online at https://angrianan.com/event/4-days-in-derry.