An Grianán Extra a wee bit more
074 912 0777 www.angrianan.com Cover art by Laura Buchanan THE EATERY CAFE OPEN DAILY Monday to Friday 9.30 - 3.30 The hottest spot for breakfast or lunch. Free Wifi Available
RECIPE
Angie’s Kinnegar Beer Battered Sausages
Ingredients:
Vegetarian Sausages (3 per person)
Approx 150 ml of Kinnegar Beer
250 g self-raising flour (gluten free)
Sift flour into a mixing bowl.
Make a hole in the centre of the flour. Slowly add beer while whisking together until it forms a smooth batter.
Dip the sausages in the batter and carefully add to your deep fat fryer.
Deep fry until golden brown.
Serve with salad and chips. PROFILE
On Frank McGuinness by Jessica Traynor, Literary Manager of the Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre of Ireland.
Hailing from Buncrana, Frank McGuinness Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw, is one of Ireland’s foremost playwrights. toured from the Abbey to BAM in New York. Frank’s work includes both original plays and His adaptation of James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ adaptations, and engages with themes as delighted Abbey audiences at Christmas 2012. various as both World Wars, Ulster loyalism, McGuinness’s adaptations demonstrate his sectarian violence, the rights of women, the keen psychological insight into some of the shifting sands of memory, the battleground of most intriguing characters of the Irish, European family life, and his beloved Donegal. and classical canon, while maintaining the stark lyricism of his own theatrical idiom. His first major success was ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’, produced on the Peacock stage in 1985, and for which he was awarded the London Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. A passionate and ground-breaking play, it takes as its subject matter a group of young soldiers and their physical and spiritual journey towards the Somme, a cataclysmic event which took place on the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. The play deals with the forging of a new loyalism in the fires of World War I, and also explores the deep bonds between the men which encompass both love and violence.
Recent plays have included ‘Greta Garbo Came to Donegal’, which looks at the unexpected arrival of the mysterious, elegant and incisive Garbo, just as the civil rights movement in the North begins to gather momentum, and ‘The Hanging Gardens.’ The latter again takes Donegal as its setting, with its protagonist, a novelist slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s, facing a reunion with his divided and competitive family. Frank McGuinness is a playwright Themes of memory, history, and patriarchal control are explored in a play both elegiac of whom Donegal and its people and savage. can be truly proud. His work enshrines the Donegal people and McGuinness has also adapted many classic plays with much success. In 1997, his adaptation landscape at the heart of some of of Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ won him a Tony the most vital Irish drama of the Award, and his 2010 adaptation of that playwright’s ‘John Gabriel Borkman’, starring past thirty years. 1 DRAMA
The Kings of the Kilburn High Road Livin’ Dred Theatre Company
Wednesday 17 & Thursday 18 Feb @ 8pm Tickets: €20 / €15
Written by Jimmy Murphy. Directed by Padraic for it brought to life many stories that I had McIntyre. heard from local workmen who had spent years A wonderful play full of humour and human working as navvies throughout the UK. sadness. In the mid-1970s a group of young It’s hard to believe that was 16 years ago and men left their homes in the West of Ireland, took some commentators actually argued that these the boat out of Dublin Bay and sailed across events never took place. I ended up on a “head the sea to England in the hope of making their to head” with a visiting nun on local radio fortunes and returning home. Twenty-fi ve years who argued that a land of saints and scholars later only one, Jackie Flavin, makes it home, but could never have produced such depraved, does so in a coffi n. The Kings of the Kilburn High broken and drunken men. Sadly nothing could Road takes place on the day the winners and be further from the truth and the depiction as losers of the group meet up to drink to Jackie outlined in the play was very real and all too Flavin’s memory and looks at their lives, lost true to life. But be sure to go and see the show dreams and their place in the new Ireland. for yourself and make up your own mind. In more recent times and again as a result of In the summer of 2000 we were fortunate to recession, hard times and unemployment, many host the original Red Kettle Theatre production of our skilled and unskilled workers were forced of this play. Ticket sales rocketed when an to emigrate once more. However most of these elderly Australian nun rang in to Highland Radio ended up not just in the UK but in far fl ung to complain vociferously about the content corners of the world and especially Australia. and strong language. Angry nuns aside, the From what I hear from the returning Aussie play has since become something of an Irish workers, especially those on building sites and classic, and was even adapted into a movie in the mines--events and happenings as portrayed 2007. Laurence Blake takes up the story: “The in the Kings of the Kilburn High Road are just last time I saw the show it was a very moving as applicable today in such areas as Perth, experience and not without some controversy. I Sydney, The Northern Territory or Queensland.” found the show very real, relevant and upsetting
Cast: GIT – Malcolm Adams, SHAY – Arthur Riordan, JAP – Phelim Drew, MAURTEEN – Seamus O’Rourke, JOE – Charlie Bonner
2 DRAMA
Of Mice and Men Rail Theatre Company Tuesday 23 at 8pm & Wednesday 24 February at 10am and 1pm Tickets: 8pm €15 / €12, matinees €10
Of Mice and Men is a powerful portrait of the job, George must choose between protecting American spirit and a heartbreaking testament his friend or staying the course towards his to the bonds of friendship. Set in California version of the American dream. Adapted by during the Great Depression, it follows John Steinbeck from his novel of the same two migrant workers George, a sharp but name it was chosen as Best Play that year by uneducated short-tempered man, and Lennie, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. We have a large but simple-minded man. Together they an evening performance on Tuesday 23rd hope to one day acquire their own piece of February and two matinee performances on land. But when Lennie stirs up trouble on the Wednesday 24th February at 10am and 1pm.
3 DRAMA/MUSIC
A Terrible Beauty: Remembering 1916
Our cover art is by Ramelton artist Laura Buchanan and is inspired by photographs of the 1916 Rising. We are celebrating and remembering those events with three shows this Easter, to coincide with the centenary of this event which brought about our modern nation.
We have a dramatic reading of a new play Beneath an Irish Sky by local historian Kieran Kelly, The Rising features two Donegal actors John Ruddy and Brian Gillespie while Left Behind: Songs of the 1916 Widows is a music recital inspired by the women involved in The Rising.
Beneath an Irish Sky by Kieran Kelly Dramatic Reading directed by David Grant Tuesday 22 March at 8pm Tickets: €5
“At first glance, the town of Letterkenny appears to have little connection to the events of Easter Week 1916. The Pulpit of the Four Masters in St. Eunan’s Cathedral was designed and sculpted by the family of Patrick Pearse and Joseph Sweeney, who fought in the GPO, attended St. Eunan’s College, but the town was affected, like the whole country was, by the actions of the rebels in the capital one hundred years ago.
“Beneath an Irish Sky is my tale of a character from Letterkenny, Brendan McDaid, as he recalls years later how he moved from the peaceful Nationalism of the Ancient Order of Hibernians into the more militant Republicanism The British troops departing Letterkenny in 1922 of Sinn Féin as a direct consequence of the following the War of Independence 1916 Rising. This life altering decision will have far reaching implications for both himself and “A local historian at heart, Beneath an Irish Sky his family. Based on research from eyewitness is my first full length play and I am delighted testimonies and archive newspaper reports, that this dramatic reading will be taking place Letterkenny between 1914 and 1921 serves as as part of the centenary commemorations in An the backdrop to his journey. Grianán Theatre.” Kieran Kelly
4 McKeague and O’Brien present The Rising and by way of Interludes World War I Powerscourt Productions and Co-Motion Media Wednesday 23 March at 8pm, also matinee on Wednesday 23 March at 12pm Tickets: €15 / 12 for the evening show and €10 for the matinee
Relive the tumultuous days of the 1916 Rising A native of Letterkenny, Brian Gillespie now through the eyes of two friendly adversaries, lives in London where he is the artistic director O’Brien, a Catholic, and Mc Keague, a Protestant. of B-Hybrid Dance Over an action packed 90 minutes O’Brien and . McKeague will tell the story of this pivotal event in Irish history in vaudeville style, with humour, song and dance, as they re-enact the Rising and the events that led to it, including World War 1.
“90 minutes of exhilarating and terrifying factual theatre” The Irish Times
John D Ruddy is a Letterkenny based actor whose recent roles include Fiesta, The 39 Steps and I Would Walk These Fields Again. Director: Joe O’Byrne Choreographer: Breandán de Gallaí Left Behind - The Widows of 1916 Michelle O’Rourke Friday 1 April at 8pm Tickets: €15 / €12
Left Behind: Songs of the 1916 Widows Left Behind is a new collection of songs which draws on the experiences of women such “More so than any art form, music can place as Lillie Connolly, Grace and Muriel Gifford, us squarely in this emotional space. With these Agnes Mallin and others involved in the Rising. songs, we hope to give life to some of these Beginning life as simple vocal/piano pieces, feelings, these emotions and the sense of loss these songs have been transformed with the felt by many women and children who were addition of O’Connor’s former bandmates from left behind by men who were dominated by celebrated Dublin rock band The Jimmy Cake. what they felt was a higher calling.” Soprano Michelle O’Rourke. “ The moody, slender, ethereal settings of Left Behind … held together by O’Rourke “So much of our engagement with history is and the extraordinary beauty of her voice.” purely political, and so rarely we allow ourselves to read between the lines to find human Michael Dervan, The Irish Times realities,” adds composer Simon O’Connor. 5
DRAMA
After Miss Julie Prime Cut Productions Saturday 26 March at 8pm Tickets: €15 / €12
Strindberg’s cruelest love story re-imagined by Patrick Marber
Co. Fermanagh VE Day 1945. Celebrations in every corner of Northern Ireland. Miss Julie descends into the servants’ kitchen of her father’s country mansion in search of the chauffeur John. Over one long balmy night, Miss Julie’s world is turned head over heels.
This passionate tragedy was adapted by Patrick Marber from Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Marber is best known for his string of acclaimed plays including Dealer’s Choice, Don Juan in Soho and Closer, and his BAFTA-winning films Notes on a Scandal and Closer. Brought to you by Prime Cut Productions whose body of work includes Woman and Scarecrow, Blackbird, The Conquest of Happiness, I Am My own Wife, the Chilean Trilogy, The God Of Carnage, Mydidae and Scorch. Suitable for 14 plus.
“Patrick Marber is the finest British dramatist of his generation.” The Daily Telegraph Cast: Pauline Hutton, Ciaran McMenamin, Lisa Dwyer Hogg
6
DRAMA DRAMA
The Cripple of Inishmaan Pleasure Ground by Bardic Theatre Rep Jarlath Tivnan Saturday 9 April at 8pm Fregoli Theatre Co Tickets: €15 / €12 Friday 22 April at 8pm Tickets: €15 / €12 “The most politically incorrect play … and probably the funniest” Jarlath Tivnan, who put in such a great The Daily Mail. performance in Decadent Theatre’s recent Vernon God Little, returns to An Grianán Recently brought to mainstream public attention with his play Pleasure Ground, winner of the by Daniel Radcliffe’s multi award winning Michael Diskin Arts Bursary Award 2015. performances in the West End Production, Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan ‘Back then I thought it was perfection. But things is set on the remote island of Inishmaan change. Oh yes, they do.’ off the west coast of Ireland. Word arrives that a Hollywood film is being made on the A group of friends who’ve gone their separate neighbouring island of Inishmore. The one ways meet back at their teenage haunt, the person who wants to be in the film more than town, park and playground, known as the anybody is young Cripple Billy, if only to break Pleasure Ground. The town is dying, the Pleasure away from the bitter tedium of his daily life. Ground’s glory has faded, and life hasn’t quite ‘The Cripple Of Inishmaan’ examines an ordinary matched up to youthful expectations. Over their coming of age in extraordinary circumstances night together, buried secrets become unearthed, and shows once more that playwright Martin past grievances boil over, and scores are settled. McDonagh is master of the deepest, darkest and most powerful humour. Since its premier at the Cast: Kate Murray, Peter Shine, Eilish National Theatre in 1996 McDonagh’s work has McCarthy and Jarlath Tivnan. gone on to achieve its rightful place in the great pantheon of Irish drama. Letterkenny native Rob McFeely is the Assistant Director on this production. “Disgracefully funny” The Telegraph
“Top notch comedy” Time Out Magazine
Patrons are asked to note that the play contains strong language.
NB: suitable ages 15+ Contains strong language, adult content 7 DRAMA
Silent by Pat Kinevane Fishamble Thursday 28 April at 8pm Tickets: €16 / €12
Homeless McGoldrig once had splendid things. Little John Nee recommends But he has lost it all – including his mind. He Silent by Pat Kinevane now dives into the wonderful wounds of his past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino, in this brave, bold, beautiful production. Silent is currently wowing audiences on its extensive Irish tour and internationally in Europe and the USA. Fishamble: The New Play Company is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning company dedicated to new work for the theatre. Recent productions presented on major Irish and international tours include Tiny Plays for Ireland by 25 writers, The Pride of Parnell Street by Sebastian Barry, and Forgotten also I am delighted to be asked to tell you about by Pat Kinevane. Pat Kinevane’s “Silent” for I can say with certainty that if you go to see the show on the basis of my recommendation you will be eternally grateful to me. To put it very simply Pat Kinevane is one of my favourite writers and performers on the whole planet, I come away from his shows simultaneously entertained, inspired and humbled and the world is always a richer place as I travel home; only great theatre can do that; it’s rare don’t miss it!
8 MUSIC
Donegal Master Fiddlers Saturday 14 May at 8pm Tickets: €15 / €10
The Donegal Master Fiddlers gala concert is This feast of traditional Irish music will also a celebration of the lifetime achievement of feature the Campbells (Vincent, Jimmy and his four of the county’s greatest living traditional son Peter), Dinny McLaughlin’s group (Dinny, fiddlers, Jimmy and Vincent Campbell, Dinny Clodagh Warnock, Edel McLaughlin and McLaughlin and Danny Meehan, as part of the Roisin Harrigan) and Fidil featuring Ciarán Bealtaine Festival for older people. In addition O’Maonaigh, Aidan O’Donnell, and Damien there will be a host of other Donegal fiddlers McGeehan. The opening performance of this who have been influenced by them. Each incredible night of music will come from an even Master Fiddler will be introduced in turn by a younger generation of musicians drawn from younger renowned fiddler, Jimmy and Vincent Paul Harrigan’s Ceol na Coille music school. by Martin McGinley, Danny by Aidan O’Donnell and Dinny by Roisin Harrigan.
9 OPERA
La Bohème Opera Theatre Company Wednesday 25 May at 8pm Tickets: €30 / €27
This is the poster from the original production of La Bohème which premiered in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio. Since then many of the greats have performed Puccini’s timeless classic. On Wednesday 25th May Opera Theatre Company will present La Bohème directed by Ben Barnes with a sterling cast of Irish and international singers, including rising star soprano Máire Flavin (Mimi), Argentinian tenor Pablo Bemsch (Rodolfo), Sinead Campbell-Wallace (Musetta), Charles Rice (Marcello), Padraic Rowan (Colline) and Rory Musgrave (Schaunard), together with a professional chorus of twelve and a thirteen member chamber orchestra conducted by Andrew Greenwood.
Opera Theatre Company celebrates 30 years touring opera throughout Ireland in 2016.
La Bohème will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.
10 DRAMA
The Birthday Party London Classic Theatre Company Thursday 26 May at 8pm Tickets: €20 / €18
“There’s a gentleman living here. He’s got a Patricia McBride, Director, birthday today, and he’s forgotten all about it. So we’re going to remind him. We’re going to An Grianán Theatre recommends give him a party.” The Birthday Party.
Playwright, director, actor, poet and political activist, Harold Pinter was born on 10 October 1930 in East London. He wrote twenty-nine plays including Betrayal, Old Times, The Homecoming and The Caretaker. In 2005, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“I fi rst came across The Birthday Party when I was a student at college in the 1980s and I have been a fan of Pinter’s work ever since. The Birthday Party is a drama of the absurd, a dark and unsettling “comedy of menace” as Pinter coined it. It is darkly comic, full of pauses and silences which build the growing tension. It’s this use of language that drew me to his work. The sense of unease and menace in the play is palpable. The two central characters, an Irishman and a Jewish man, are thinly disguised thugs who brutally interrogate and terrorise a helpless victim, before leading him away to his fate. In those times disappearances and abductions were common in Northern Ireland and the play impacted strongly on me. I also like his unique take on middle class life: he once answered what are your plays about by saying “the weasel under the cocktail cabinet”!”
For this London Classic Theatre Company Production the cast is Jonathan Ashley (Goldberg), Gareth Bennett-Ryan (Stanley), Cheryl Kennedy (Meg), Ged McKenna (Petey), Declan Rodgers (McCann) and Imogen Wilde (Lulu).
11 PROFILE
Theatre Artist In Residence
“Hello, I’m Guy Le Jeune, a writer, theatre maker and this year, the Theatre Artist In Residence for An Grianán Theatre and Donegal County Council. Some of you might have seen my play Fiesta. This residency is funded directly by the Arts Council and it is an opportunity for me to work on a number of exciting theatre projects within the county. I started in July 2015, researching and writing about Canon James McDyer of Glencolmcille. The research involved chatting to people who knew him and listening show during the Earagail Arts Festival in July. to their reminiscences. From that came the play, I’ll also be working with the Tory islanders. I Would Walk These Fields Again, due to be I’m available and interested in exploring revived for a short tour in May.” other ideas for theatre pieces too. If you are interested in talking about an idea I’d be more “I’m currently working on a project about the than happy to make the time. You can contact UNIFI factory; the stories, the people and its me on 086 832 6157 or by email guylejeune@ history. I’m running reminiscence sessions over cashla.org and through Facebook and Twitter.” the next few months which will culminate in a
Pic from the 2014 Production of Fiesta
12 AT A GLANCE
ARTFORM DATE TITLE COMPANY FEBRUARY DRAMA Wed 17 & Thur 18 The Kings of the Kilburn High Road Livin' Dred Theatre Co
DRAMA Tues 23 & Wed 24 Of Mice and Men Rail Theatre Co/Mullingar Arts Centre
MUSIC Sat 27 The Ultimate Eagles Joe Gallagher Promotions
MARCH MUSICAL Tues 1 to Sat 5 Jesus Christ Superstar Letterkenny Musical Society MUSIC Fri 11 Dominic Kirwan COMEDY Sat 12 Des Bishop FAMILY Sat 19 & Sun 20 Forristal School of Dance DRAMA Tues 22 Beneath An Irish Sky by Kieran Kelly Powerscourt Productions and DRAMA Wed 23 The Rising Co-Motion Media DRAMA Sat 26 After Miss Julie Prime Cut Productions MUSIC Mon 28 Harlem Gospel Choir
APRIL MUSIC Fri 1 Left Behind - The Widows of 1916 DRAMA Sat 9 The Cripple of Inishmann Bardic Theatre Rep MUSIC Tues 5 Usher’s Island DRAMA Sat 9 The Cripple of Inishmann Bardic Theatre Rep MUSIC Thur 14 And Finally Phil Collins MUSICAL Fri 15 & Sat 16 Gutz the Musical DRAMA Fri 22 Pleasure Ground Fregoli Theatre
FAMILY Sat 23 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Riverbank Productions
DRAMA Sun 24 The Patriot Game Donegal Drama Circle
DRAMA Thur 28 Silent Fishamble The New Play Company
DRAMA/COMEDY Fri 29 & Sat 30 Nobody's Talking to Me Crokey Hill Players
MAY VARIETY Wed 4 The Intimate Magic Show Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee "A Crucial Week in the Life of a DRAMA Thur 5 & Fri 6 Grocer’s Assistant The History of the Peace DRAMA Sat 7 & Sun 8 Martin Lynch and Grimes & McKee (According to my Ma!) MUSIC Sat 14 Donegal Master Fiddlers OPERA Wed 25 La Bohème Opera Theatre Co
DRAMA Thur 26 The Birthday Party London Classic Theatre Company MUSIC Fri 27 We Banjo 3
JUNE COMEDY Wed 8 Reginald D Hunter DRAMA Fri 24 & Sat 25 God Bless The Child Everyman Theatre Design by neilissheridan.com