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The 40th Lislea Drama Festival begins tomorrow Saturday 26 February at the Old Schoolhouse Theatre.
The 2022 Festival opens tomorrow night at 8pm with Newry's very own Newpoint Players’ and their production of “The True Story Of Mary K” By Sean Treanor in The Old Schoolhouse, Lislea
This year the Festival Committee are delighted to be back and look forward to welcoming drama groups the length and breadth of Ireland. Headlining the festival are Newtownstewart Theatre Company, Co. Tyrone; Glenamaddy Players, Co. Galway; Enniskillen Theatre Company, Fermanagh and a welcome return of Kilrush Drama Group, Co. Wicklow as well as the local drama champions: Lislea Dramatic Players. Newpoint Players and Castleblayney Players.
Festival adjudicator is Emma Jordan a multi award winning director of a host of productions not only in Ireland and the UK but across the globe.
Aidan Strain Electrical Engineering, Mullaghbawn, continues as main sponsor. Aidan is a longstanding patron and friend of the festival. With his backing, and the support of the many great sponsors, the Lislea Drama Festival continues to flourish.
Season Tickets are still on sale priced at £40. Tickets will also be available on the night at the Box Office from 7-8pm.
Nightly Admission: Adults £8.
General Inquiries Tel: 02830838565. Ticket bookings 02830830069.
Check out our social media and local press for further details. Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LisleaDramaFest Instagram @lisleadramafest
The Plays
Saturday 26 February, 8pm
Newpoint Players present The True Story Of Mary K By Sean Treanor in The Old Schoolhouse, Lislea 8pm. Set in our own stony townlands of South Armagh and drawn from many anecdotes recounted by his family matriarchs, Sean Treanor pays tribute to the “gaelic memory” of these lost and unrecorded women who led difficult but heroic lives. Woven through the story of our eponymous central character Mary Kelly comes a revealing insight to the lives of Irish women in the early 20th century, a show not to be missed. (not competing)
Sunday 27 February 8pm
Castleblayney Players fresh from playing in the Iontas Theatre, will perform “Philadelphia, Here I Come”, Friel’s masterpiece. Gar Private is the alter ego who speaks the thoughts, opinions and dreams of Gar Public. On the eve of his departure to Philadelphia, despite the fantasies he entertains of a new life in America, all it would take to make him reconsider would be one word of affection from his uncommunicative father, his lost love Kathy or his unrealising friends. Always a festival favourite. (not competing)
Friday 4 March 8pm
Kilrush Drama Group, Co Wexford present Little Gem. One extraordinary year. Three generations of Dublin women, Kay (grandmother), Loraine (mother) and Amber (granddaughter) narrate several months of emotional turmoil that they have experienced, telling in successive scenes their personal histories of love and loss in an alienating contemporary world.
Saturday 5 March 8pm
Enniskillen Theatre Company present The Night Alive. Tommy is drifting through life, living in his uncle’s house, and surviving on whatever crackpot schemes he and Doc devise. When he saves Aimee from homelessness, Tommy feels a glimmer of hope that his life finally has purpose. Fluttering between layers of drama and comedy, this play quietly celebrates the unassuming heroisms of everyday life against the corrosive pain of loneliness
Sunday 6 March 8pm
Newtownstewart Theatre Company, Co Tyrone present Family Plot. Inside their family grave, three generations of Kerrs are dead and buried – but still condemned to argue! At first, the family’s predicament is darkly comic, however as Carville expertly reveals long-hidden truths, Family Plot becomes a gripping and terrifying story of lives damaged by secrets and lies.
Wednesday 9 March 8pm
Lislea Dramatic Players present One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
How do you solve a problem like Mc Murphy? A charming rogue who contrived to serve his custodial sentence in a mental institution instead of prison. He forms surprising bonds of affection with the resident inmates and spurred by a desire for social justice, stages a revolt so they might watch the World Series, and arranges a rollicking midnight party with girls and alcohol. But Nurse Ratched knows exactly what treatment she needs to dispense for life to settle down again.
Saturday 12 March 7.30pm
Glenamaddy Players, Co Galway presents The Cripple of Inishmaan. A strange comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling. Word arrives on Inishmaan that a Hollywood director is filming on the neighboring island and the one person who wants to be in the film more than anybody is young Cripple Billy. He determines to cross the sea and audition for the “Yank”, and as news of his audacity ripples through the community, the play fills with a cast of extraordinary characters and unexpected plot turns.
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