By Sean Hillen
TRANSPORTING people more than a hundred years back in time is no easy matter but theatre director and former drama teacher Carmel McGill managed to do just that in Falcarragh this week.
Ably assisted by consultant director, Murray Learmont, choreographer, Caroline McGee, and more than twenty local amateur actors and musicians, they transformed various rooms in a rural Donegal house, into an authentic multi-stage setting for the re-enactment of James Joyce’s famous short story ‘The Dead’ which took place in Dublin in 1904.
Think of a modest Downton Abbey, Irish-style and you have some idea of the immense accomplishment achieved by The Cloughaneely Players, a talented amateur acting group, which over the years have performed works as wide-ranging as ‘Casablanca,’ ‘Hamlet’ and ’Some Like It Hot.’ For this production, the cast rehearsed for seven weeks in venues ranging from The Shamrock pub to the local community centre, Garradh Cholmcille. And to tickle the audience’s enjoyment even more, the play’s location was kept secret, theatre goers simply being told to meet in the pub where they would be picked up by mini-bus.
Creating the ambience of a bygone era, actors and actresses dressed in vintage costumes, some wearing wigs, bestowing upon them an impressive sense of authenticity.
“I have always been fascinated by Joyce’s story with its universal theme of memory and lost youth, and I wanted to host it in November, the month of the dead,” said Carmel, who spent many hours writing the script. “It was a challenge for everyone concerned. The cast showed great courage, putting their real lives on hold for rehearsals. That’s the essence of community drama, a blend of enthusiasm and passion for theatre.”
The wide cast of characters in the play reflected a wide cast of characters in real life.
Replicating Joyce’s story, local nurse Bella Stewart and Catriona Kelly as Julia and Kate Morkin respectively, alongside Grainne Duggan as Mary Jane, host a social evening, where merry moments are mixed with memories of lost love.
Maggie McKinney, a trained hypno-therapist, originally from Castlewellan, now living in Killult, was brassy Molly Ivors, a Celtic Revivalist boldly scolding another character for lack of interest in things Irish, including the Gaelic language. Denis Doohan, her partner, an excellent quiz master in Falcarragh, played the role of Mr. Bartell D’Arcy, a renown tenor in Ireland.
Former local teacher, Noreen O’Grady was emotionally triumphant as Greta Conroy in a poignant climactic bedroom scene with Manus Kelly, a Falcarragh real estate agent, as her stage husband, Gabriel. Eddie Curran, a man of many trades, including bartender, chimney sweep, landscaper and fast runner in Cloughaneely, looked resplendent in a white dinner jacket and black bow tie, reminiscent of James Bond in ‘Goldfinger.’
Even Brendan Twomey, a former revenue sheriff and avid sea swimmer, took part, delightfully playing the lofty Mr. Brown, best described as ‘inebriated in a rather graceful manner,’ while Mickey McHugh, jewellery maker and teacher in the Youthreach programme in Gortahork, played Freddy Malins, ‘inebriated in a less than graceful manner.’ Even Sean Ó Gaothin, author and head gardener at Glenveagh National Park, was involved, as a candle-carrying porter at the Gresham Hotel Dublin.
Next stop Hollywood?
Sean Hillen is author of novels, ‘Pretty Ugly’ and ‘Driver’s Diary.’
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