Nine nights of Newry Drama

The 64th Newry Drama Festival opens tomorrow night for a sparkling nine night run of plays, from drama groups throughout the island.

This year it’s in Warrenpoint Town Hall due to on-going renovation work at Newry Town Hall and it starts at 7.30pm every night. Nightly tickets are £9 Adult/ £8 concession.

The Festival Club this year is The Lough and Quay, Marine Parade with Supper and Bar facilities available.

THE PLAYS

Friday 11th March Bart Players, Belfast

RUMOURS

Neil Simon

The play shows a dinner party gone topsy turvy. Ken and his wife Chris are attending Charlie’s party but things are not going to plan. Rumours is a farcical play with the usual multi-faceted confusions and the guests blaming Ken for the situation.

Saturday 12th March Palace Players, Fermoy

THE GIGLI CONCERT

Tom Murphy

The story centres on the encounters and exchanges between an unnamed, self made Irish property developer consumed with a wish to sing like Gigli, and an English ‘healer’ who professes to help people realise their potential. First produced at The Abbey Theatre in 1983.

Sunday 13th March Gorey Little Theatre

THE BIRDS

Conor McPherson

Based on Daphne Du Maurier’s short story which inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s film of the same title. A gripping, unsettling and moving look at human relationships in the face of societal collapse. In an isolated house, strangers Nat and Diane take shelter from the masses of attacking birds.

Monday 14th March Ballyshannon Drama Society

OLD TIMES

Harold Pinter

An attractive middle-class home is inhabited by an attractive articulate couple until Anna arrives to stay with her old friend Kate and her husband, Deeley. Each charector reminices about their shared experiences of the past - but each has a different version of events.

Tuesday 15th March Newpoint Players, Newry

TIME AND REMEMBERING

Sean Treanor

The play depicts the life of a farming couple from the beginning of their relationship through the birth of their son and his growing up, and ends with their growing old and infirm. The story-telling owes as much to dance and movement as a traditional narrative.

Wednesday 16th March Rosemary Drama Group, Belfast

KINDERTRANSPO

Diane Samuels

In 1938 the British Government introduced a programme which gave Jewish children safe passage to the UK. Spared the horrors of the death camps, the children were uprooted, separated from their parents and transported to an other culture where they faced a mixture of kindness and occasional exploitation.

Thursday 17th March Gifford Players

A CRUCIAL WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A GROCER’S ASSISTANT

Tom Murphy

John Joe Moran is a 34 year old dreamer, a ‘fooleen’ of a man who can’t decide whether to stick it out at home or to emigrate to the great unknown. The play is a comedy about an unfunny situation in a community which struggles to disguise the outward signs of their poverty.

Friday 18th March Dundalk Theatre Workshop

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS

(Strong Language)

David Mamet

Four desperate Chicago real-estate agents are prepared to engage in any number of unethical illegal acts - from lies to bribery, threats, intimidation and burglary - to sell undesirable real-estate to unwitting prospective buyers. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984.

Saturday 19th March Prosperous Dramatic Society, Naas

OLD MAN TWO GUVNORS

Richard Bean

Described as “one of the most side-splitting hilarious productions ever to be staged in London” An easily - confused Francis Henshall becomes separately employed by two men - one, a local gangster and the other an upper class criminal. Francis must try to keep the two men from meeting at all costs.

Adjudicator

Adjudicator Tony Rushford returns to Newry Drama Festival. Tony studied at the school of Speech and Drama in London and acted with the Harrogate Repertory Company and also directed productions at the Bradford Playhouse, the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, the Georgian Theatre, Richmond and at the Edinburgh Festival.

For twenty years he was Head of the Drama Department at St. Mary’s University in Strawberry Hill. He spent six months as Visiting Fellow in Performing Arts at Melbourne University and returned to adjudicate the Sydney Theatre Festival.