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Newry Drama Festival is making a welcome return after two years absence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Festival in its 68th season will run from Monday 21 March to Saturday 26 March at 7.30pm Sharp at Newry Town Hall.
As Festival Chairperson, Máire Donaghey explains "The INTERVAL is over at long last!
"We are greatly looking forward to welcoming everyone back to our Town Hall, which is looking splendid and ready to light up again for our return.
"The Festival can only be staged thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and audiences. To Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, a sincere thank you for your financial support. To our main sponsor, Sure Shred N.I Ltd, our nightly sponsors, all our listed sponsors and faithful audiences, we are indebted to you. A sincere thank you."
The Chairperson added" A warm welcome to our Adjudicator, Brian Marjoribanks, SASDA, on his return to us. With a wealth of theatrical experience to his credit, the task is in very capable hands.
"Please come and support our much loved festival."
The Plays
Monday 21 March
Rosemary Drama Group present Tartuffe ( a new adaptation) by Ranjit Bolt
Religious conman, Tartuffe, worms his way into business man Organ’s life, household and family . So successful is he in his fraud, that he looks set to drive away Organ’s son Damis, marry his daughter Mariane, and seduce his wife Elmire. He may well have Organ himself jailed and take onto himself all Organ’s possessions.
This new adaptation of Moliere’s classic by Ranjit Bolt is a very funny, fast paced farce, just as relevant today as it was in the court of Louis X1V.
Set in North Down in 1984, this translation, with its religious references, will be especially appreciated by Northern Irish audiences.
Tuesday 22 March
Newpoint Players present Mary K by Séan Treanor
This play tells the story of the eponymous central character Mary Kelly. Mary’s story is based on many anecdotes relate to Treanor by his two grandmothers, his paternal and maternal aunts and great - aunts.
These relatives gave him an insight into the lives of women, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when women were still chattels. Class, poverty, emigration, sexual taboos, religion, the law, tradition and superstition all weighed heavily on men and women in Ireland, and even in the U.S, but particularly on women. The stories of these lost, unrecorded individuals still haunt Treanor. It is as restless ghosts never finding sleep and through the character Mary Kelly he tries to relate something of their difficult but ( in a minor sense) heroic lives.
The stories inherited were all from South. Armagh and South. Down but being a South. Armagh man, Treanor see this play as being set in the stony townlands of his own area where that peculiar sense of ‘Gaelic haunting’ and’ Gaelic memory’ might still be found. "I venture to believe that these stories and these ‘hauntings’ are not restricted to my area. I am deeply indebted to the dedicated cast and crew. We hope our story has a resonance for wider audiences." Treanor said.
Wednesday 23 March
Bart Players present The Cemetery Club
Lifelong friends meet weekly to celebrate the past and present.
This comedy filled with much Jewish humour is about the widows Doris, Esther and Lucille, whose husbands die one after another in just a few years.
Even though the three friends, all in their 50’s , react quite differently to their bereavements, they become even closer than they were as couples. They frequently visit their husbands’ graves together and talk about their perspective lives.
Thursday 24 March
Theatre 3 Newtownabbey present The Anastasia File by Royce Ryton
Did the daughter of Tsar Nicholas 11 die with the rest of the imperial family in 1918?
Or was she the girl found in an asylum in 1920?
This brilliant drama presents the case for and against “ Mrs Manahan” using only four actors… Mrs Managhan, a police inspector, who later plays his own son, and an additional actor and actress who play between them thirty parts.
A compelling play presenting audiences with a final surprising twist .
Friday 25 March
Bunclody/ Kilmyshall Drama Drama Group present The Good Father by Christian O Reilly
It’s a love story as old as time, with a modern twist, of how two people starting at the end try to reach a new beginning. Two very different strangers, Tim and Jane are from very different sides of the class divide, each looking for a new start and to shake off the disappointments of the past. After a chance meeting at a New Year’s Eve party, they attempt to form a relationship against all odds. This heartfelt moving drama charts the journey of their love, loss and redemption. A touching story celebrating the triumph of hope.
Saturday 26 March
Prosperous Dramatic Society present God of Carnage by Yasmin’s Reza
What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behaviour of their children?
A calm and rational debate between grown- ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or an hysterical night of name- calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime?
Boys will be boys, but the adults are usually worse- much worse!
The Adjudicator - Brian Marjoribanks
Brian Marjoribanks joined the Gateway Repertory Theatre in Edinburgh in 1964 after attending Edinburgh College of Speech and Drama. This was followed by a season at the Metropole Theatre in Glasgow with Jimmy Logan. He made his television debut in Dr Finlay’s Casebook and then spent six months in the BBC TV series United. Thereafter he taught at the Queen Victoria School, Dunblane before being appointed Lecturer in Speech and Drama at a College of Education in Glasgow.
Having played professional football with Hibernian F.C. and Heart of Midlothian F.C., Brian presented Sportscene on television and Sportssound on radio for the B.B.C. for seventeen years before being appointed Controller (UK Regions) in 1983 with the Independent Television Commission, a post from which he retired early in Autumn 2000. In 2001 he was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Stirling. He joined the Board of Scottish Television in 2001 and for five years chaired the Board.
He has adjudicated the British Amateur Drama Finals, the Scottish Finals and the Scottish Youth Finals of the One Act Festival. He has also adjudicated the All Ireland Finals, the All Ireland Confined Finals and the Ulster Finals of the Three Act Festival. He has adjudicated at most British Federation Music and Drama Festivals in Scotland. He was an international juror of the drama section at the Prix Italia Television Festival in both Sicily and Venice. He returned to Sicily to chair the international panel in the prestigious news , current affairs and documentary category.
Tickets
Season Ticket £40 / Student £20
Nightly Ticket £9 / £8 Concession
Season and Nightly Ticket Booking takes place at the Canal Court Hotel Wednesday 16th March 12 Noon - 2 pm.
Nightly tickets available at the Town Hall front desk each evening.
