South Armagh based play well-received at Newry Drama Festival.

Last night’s production of Jez Butterworth’s ‘The Ferryman’ was presented by Ballyduff Drama Group from West Waterford. Set in South Armagh in 1981, the Carney household’s preparations for the annual harvest and the traditional night of feasting and celebrations that follow, will be interrupted by a stranger, a visitor claiming to be from the IRA command.

The play was very well received by the audience and got a standing ovation. Adjudicator Gerry Stembridge remarked in his opening “the group was not only content with 20 actors on the stage but they had rabbits, geese and even a real baby”! He praised the set - “a full scale house with actual lights, a stove and glorious dressing, a ceiling, a roof and lovely flooring”. The set, he went on to say, “had a sense of being lived in, a sense of family”.

However, he felt that the down stage space could have been used more. He offered due credit to Chris Atkinson and Kieran Tyrrell for set design and to Mary Clare Condon and Fiona Coughlan for costumes. Stembridge found the lighting impressive and was “overjoyed to see the beautiful scene of a dawn sunrise through the kitchen window”, although he would have liked to see the scene changing throughout the day.

He congratulated Noel Hayes stage manager on a “fantastic job” with the “superb presentation which was perfectly suited to the show”. Stembridge went on to acknowledge the excellent work from the large ensemble. The characters in the family played by John Stack, Grainne Kenny , Fiona Coughlan, Shiela Heneghan, Richie Walsh and Mary Colbert “were superb” as, he said, were the characters outside the family. He remarked that “it was joyous to see the grouping of young actors on stage right on point”.

Stembridge then moved to direction. The director was “so assured in the way she moved the entire play. She knew the value of movement and the value of stillness. She created a feeling of life - the life of this large family”. It was a difficult task to manage such a large cast but Ger Canning did so with ease. He highlighted the final scene with Caitlin and Quinn which was played with absolute stillness. As with the previous night’s production Stembridge felt the last 15 minutes of the play slowed in pace and advised the director to”not try to make every moment significant”. However he thought the melodramatic ending was ‘brilliantly choreographed“.

Stembridge concluded by saying “Ger Canning has taken us to the mountain top with this production”. Tonight’s the final night of this 70th year of Newry Drama Festival when Clontarf players present ‘ Radium Girls’.

There are still some tickets available which can be booked online or purchased at the door of the Town Hall from 7pm. Curtain up at 7:30.

Tonight will see the awards presented by the adjudicator after the final play.