Connemara drama for Clarinbridge

Date Published: 09-Mar-2012

 THE Clarinbridge Drama group is staging The Connemara five, a play by Galway author Micheál Ó Conghaile, in Kilcornan Hall at the Brothers of Charity facility in Clarinbridge from Thursday, March 29 to Saturday ,March 31.

The play was originally written in Irish as Cúigear Chonamara, and is set in Connemara in the 1980s. It was premiered by An Taibhdhearc in October 2003, scooping three awards – the Stewart parker⁄BBC ulster award, an Oireachtas award and a Listowel Writers’ Week award.

Cúigear Chonamara was translated into English by Úna Ní Chonchúir (Arlen house 2007). It tells the story of a father and his two sons living in Connemara, and the strained relationship between the three, as well as the role of two women within their circle – one, a friend of the family; and the other, the fiancée of one of the sons.

In the Clarinbridge Drama group production, the father Coleman is played by Michael Lacey; his sons Danny and Darach are played by Pádraig Ó Mairtin and Mike Kerrigan; Danny’s fiancée, Cynthia, is played by Deirdre Flanagan; and Maggie, a close friend of the family, is played by Bróna Smyth.

The play is directed and produced by Orla Mullaney, and the production is strictly for an audience over the age of 18.Tickets will cost €10 and will be on sale at the door on all three nights, with curtain up at 8pm.

Micheál Ó Conghaile is a Galway native who is a prolific writer, and was responsible for the translation of two Martin McDonagh plays – The Beauty queen of Leenane and The Lonesome FIest – into Irish. He established the publishing company Cló Iar-Chonnachta in Indreabhán in 1985, and since then the company has published more than 300 books and 200 traditional Irish music and spoken word albums.