All set to hit the road with Lady Gregory and her plays

“I’m 67 years old and I haven’t grown up yet,” says Marie Mullen, with a laugh as she walks to work in Dublin’s pouring rain.

Certainly, when it comes to acting, Marie has retained a youthful enthusiasm for the profession she embarked on in 1975 when she co-founded Druid Theatre with fellow UCG graduates, Garry Hynes and the late Mick Lally.

Right now, she’s on her way to Wesley Hall, Ranelagh, where rehearsals are taking place for Druid’s upcoming production, a Galway tour of one-act plays by Lady Augusta Gregory. They include The Rising of the Moon, Hyacinth Halvey, The Gaol Gate, The Workhouse Ward, McDonough’s Wife and the revolutionary Cathleen ní Houlihan (written with WB Yeats). On the Outside co-written by the late Tom Murphy and Noel O’Donoghue, will also feature.

Marie isn’t rehearsing today though, as the cast and crew are getting ready to mask up and, staying socially distant, go by bus to Lady Gregory’s home, Coole Park outside Gort. That’s where the production will formally open on September 15, before touring to venues from Portumna to Clifden

This tour is Druid’s contribution to Galway 2020, vastly scaled back from what had been in the original bid book that won Galway the European designation of Capital of Culture back in 2016. Lack of funds meant the company’s first plan – Testament, written by Colm Tobin and due to take place on Inis Meáin with a cast of 10 professional actors including Marie, and 20 local performers – had to be scrapped.

Then, it was decided to do 10 one-acts from the Irish theatrical cannon, including plays by writers such as Waterford dramatist Teresa Deevy whose works were staged at the Abbey in the early 20th century until she went out of fashion.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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