Rossmore set for curtain up on 61st drama festival

THERE’S a fantastic blend of comedy, tragedy and classics at the 61st West Cork Drama Festival, which opens in the Rossmore Theatre on Saturday March 9th. 

The festival runs from March 9th to 16th with eight plays being performed over the course of the week. 

The line-up includes dark comedy in The Lonesome West, Irish classics Dancing at Lughnasa and Stolen Child, dark tragedy (On Raftery’s Hill), comedic romp (Out of Order), and contemporary (The Ferryman) and classical drama (Antigone, The Trojan Women). The adjudicator for the festival this year is Paddy Farrelly.

Wayside players from Blackwater, Wexford open the festival on Saturday March 9th with Marina Carr’s powerful dark tragedy On Raftery’s Hill an adult  tale described as dark and disturbing, with a black comic aspect running through it. 

Holycross-Ballycahill Drama Group from Tipperary take to the stage on Sunday March 10th with Friel’s classic Dancing at Lughnasa. This multi award winning tender play about the five Mundy sisters is set in 1930s Donegal and has wowed audiences and won awards around the world, and was also adapted into a movie starring Meryl Streep in 1998. 

On Monday March 11th Brideview Drama from Tallow Co Waterford present Antigone by Sophocles and adapted by Don Taylor. This is one of Sophocles trilogy ‘The Theban Plays’ and this powerful tragedy dramatises the clash between the family and the city and the tragic consequences that follow.

Tuesday March 12th sees the local Kilmeen Drama Group perform the popular Martin McDonagh play The Lonesome West. This macabrely funny play is the third of his renowned Leenane trilogy set in the wild west of Ireland, with two brothers Coleman and Valene   fighting over unresolved childhood grievances (and crisps), following their father’s death.

On Wednesday March 13th Memory Lane Theatre Group from Lixnaw, Co Kerry stage fellow county playwright Brendan Kennelly’s adaptation of the Euripides 2,400-year-old tragedy The Trojan Women. A play exploring the loss incurred from war and the impact of war on womanhood. It was adapted by Kennelly when the Balkan war was ongoing and resonates now with events in Gaza and the Ukraine.

Ballyduff Drama Group from west Waterford present Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman on Thursday March 14th. The play is set around the ‘disappeared’ of the Troubles and the disturbing impact of the silence that surrounds them and also draws parallels with Greek mythology. 

Friday March 15th sees Wexford’s Ballycogley Players take to the stage with their production of the popular Ray Cooney comedy Out of Order, which focuses on a government minister’s night of romance with an opposition secretary which leads to mayhem. 

Closing the festival on Saturday March 16 th is the production of Stolen Child by Yvonne Quinn and Bairbre ní Chaoimh presented by Clann Machua Drama Group from Kiltimagh Co. Mayo.

This is an emotive yet humorous play, set in the 1990s, about a woman adopted at birth who searches for her mother with the aid of a quirky private detective, and looks at the wider impact of the care of mothers and children. 

Paddy Farrelly, manager of the Ramor Theatre, Virginia, Co. Cavan is the adjudicator for the festival.   In 2013 he directed Trad by Mark Doherty for Millrace Drama Group which won the Confined finals that year. 

This year the Confined finals take place in Mountmellick, Co Laois from April 18th-26th while the Open finals take place as usual in Athlone from April 27th to May 5th.

All plays start sharp at 8pm and patrons can’t be admitted after the play commences. 

Nightly tickets priced at €15 and season tickets priced at €100 can be booked online  on the theatre’s website at rossmoretheatre.com.