Bridge Drama

Presenting “The Wake”

By Tom Murphy.

Directed by Trish Doyle.

Synopsis of Play

Set in small town Ireland in the nineties, The Wake tells the story of Vera O’Toole who has lived in New York for many years. When Vera hears of her beloved grandmother’s death, she returns home to find that her family have been keeping secrets from her. Locked in a hotel with Finbar, her childhood Romeo, and Henry, her scandal-giving brother in law, can Vera come to an understanding of her life and her family? Will her grandmother be given the wake, full of songs and laughter that Vera wants?

The Wake is a story of family, loneliness and resilience told by playwright, Tom Murphy with poignancy, humour and devastating truth.

Group Information

Bridge Drama is a Castlebridge based amateur drama group. The group are previous All-Ireland Champions who produce two productions each year, one of which enters the Amateur Drama Circuit of Ireland. This year’s entry, The Wake by Tom Murphy is directed by Trish Doyle.

Wexford Drama Group

Presenting “How I Learned To Drive”

By Paula Vogel.

Directed by Paul Walsh.

Synopsis of Play

This play is the story of Lil Bit, a girl from a poor family in Baltimore who dreams of making it as a writer in New York. When her aunt’s husband, Peck, offers her driving lessons she finds herself in the arms of an older married man. Following her from her teenage years up to the age of thirty five, the play is an epic story about finding your voice.

Setting – Baltimore, Maryland 1960’s

Group Information
Wexford Drama Group were founded in Wexford Town in 1966. We perform Three full productions per year, festival circuit (Feb/March), a summer production and an October production.
Since reforming in 2004 we have qualified for the RTE All Ireland Drama Finals on numerous occasions as recently as 2023 with “The Father” by Florian Zeller, winning Best Actor for Andy Doyle and the coveted Abbey Theatre Award.

Ballyduff Drama Group

Presenting: The Ferryman.

By Jez Butterworth.

Directed by Ger Canning.

Play Synopsis

Northern Ireland, 1981. The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor.

Group Information

Ballyduff Drama Group has been performing on the Three-Act Circuit for over forty years. In that time they have won the RTE All Ireland Finals in Athlone on two occasions, in 2004 & 2022. Their repertoire is extensive and has included work across the whole spectrum of dramatic endeavour. Productions like “Albertine in Five Times”, second-placed “The Welkin” (2023), “Of Mice and Men” (2010) and “Caught in the Net” (2008) and the All-Ireland winning “On Raftery’s Hill” (2004) and “Rabbit Hole” (2022) represent just some of its array of achievements. Our group promotes the ethos that is Ballyduff Drama Group – one of inclusion, determination, cooperation and pride.

Prosperous Dramatic Society

Presenting “A View from the Bridge”

By Arthur Miller. Directed by Connie Broderick.

Play Synopsis

A View from the Bridge premiered in 1956. Set in an Italian-American neighborhood on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, the play follows the unraveling of Eddie Carbone following the arrival of two of his wife’s cousins from Italy. Eddie is obsessed with his niece, Catherine, and is threatened by her relationship with one of the cousins.

Group Information

From humble beginnings, this small village in Co. Kildare, has developed a strong tradition of theatre, it all started with a bilingual play An tAthru Mor, produced by Fr J. O’Brien, over 100 years ago, to the present day where the group has won the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Finals back to back. The group first won the 1 Act Open All Ireland finals in 1995 and re-joined the circuit in 2009. Prosperous won the 1 Act All Ireland finals in 2012 and were invited to perform their winning production in Monaco at the Mondial du Théâtre.

The group have never failed to qualify for the All Ireland Finals in Athlone, they held the title of Ulster Champions in 2013 and 2014. In 2017 the group were awarded the Abbey Theatre award at the RTÉ All Ireland Drama finals, bringing The Play about the Baby to the Peacock Theatre. 2018 was an outstanding year for the group, their production of Sylvia took 1st place at the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival and the group also secured the Abbey Theatre Award which took them to 5 sold out shows in the Peacock theatre, hot on the heels of this success was Karl Keoghs production of ‘Breathless’ by John McKenna which qualified for the All Ireland 1-Act finals.

Clontarf Players

Presenting “Radium Girls”

By D.W. Gregory.

Directed by Myra Maguire.

Synopsis of Play

“Radium Girls” by D.W. Gregory is a gripping play that explores the true and
tragic events surrounding the radium dial painters in the early 20th century.
Set against the backdrop of industrial America, the story follows Grace
Fryer and her colleagues who paint watch dials with luminous radium paint.
As the girls begin to suffer from mysterious illnesses, Grace embarks on a courageous journey to seek justice against the powerful Radium Corporation.
The play skillfully intertwines the personal struggles of the affected women
with the legal battles they face, highlighting the themes of corporate greed, worker’s rights, and the resilience of the human spirit.
“Radium Girls” is a poignant and thought-provoking drama that sheds light
on a dark chapter in history, urging the audience to question societal values
and the pursuit of profit at any cost.. Radium Girls is making is its debut on the Irish stage with Clontarf Players.

Group Information

Clontarf Players have secured a place in the All-Ireland finals set to take place in Athlone this May. This bridges an almost 30-year gap since the last Clontarf drama group, Temple Players, competed at the highest level in 1995.

The group took home the award for best play at the Newry Drama Festival held in Newry Town Hall. This followed a win the previous week at the Newtownabbey Festival. They also received four second place finishes.

Dalkey Players

Presenting “The Crucible”

By Arthur Miller.

Directed by Emma Jane Nulty.

Synopsis of Play

The Crucible tells the story of one man’s fight to save his identity in a repressive Puritan community where intolerance collides with lust and superstition, fuelling widespread hysteria with tragic results.
Written more than 60 years ago, The Crucible speaks to our modern times so clearly. Every day we are witness to the horrors of terror and persecution and Miller’s play is both profoundly chilling and also deeply hopeful.

Group Information

Dalkey Players has been bringing theatre to the community of Dalkey, Co Dublin for the last 47 years.

We strive to create theatre that is a collaboration between movement, design, music and text.

We believe theatre is for all and promote diversity and access across all our activities.

We have participated on both the Full Length and One Act Circuits for many years. In 2017, we won the RTE All Ireland Drama Festival with Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone and were Runner Up in 2016 with Polly Teale’s adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre

We were thrilled to win the RTE All Ireland Drama Festival 2023 with Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats and look forward to being a part of the All Ireland Drama Festival 2024 with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

Newpoint Players

Presenting ” In The Shadow Of The Glen (Reimagined)”

By Seán Treanor (after JM Synge).

Directed by Seán Treanor.

Synopsis of Play

In 2005 Newpoint Players had the honour of performing a version of Synge’s “In the Shadow of  the Glen” as part of the Abbey Theatre Dublin’s Centennial celebrations. The play was one of the four short plays which opened the Abbey one hundred years before. Newpoint director Sean Treanor has long wished to revisit this classic piece of Irish theatre and develop some of the ideas and themes found in Synge’s piece. He also wanted to develop some of the characters such as Patch D’Arcy and Peggy Cavanagh, who are only mentioned in the original and do not appear onstage. As Synge himself noted in his introduction, there is a poetry in the language of the native people.  This makes the piece suitable for a slightly formalised, almost dance performance style, which leaves the piece in a magical space between the real and the dream world. The hope is that with thorough workshopping and with the addition of music and masks, the Newpoint actors can produce a piece of theatre which remains true to Synge’s original, whilst exploring undercurrents in the original. 

Group Information

Newpoint Players [Newry and Warrenpoint] were formed in 1946 shortly after the war. For most of those years since, the drama group has produced at least one full-length play a year The number of actors and actresses of stage and screen who owe their first chance to Newpoint is legion. The group wins awards for every production and is indeed this year the first group to qualify for the 2024 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival Final in Athlone with their production of “In the Shadow of the Glen: Reimagined,”by Writer/ Director Seán Treanor.

Ballycogley Players

Presenting “Out of Order” by Ray Cooney.

Directed by Pat Whelan.

Synopsis of Play
When Richard Willey, a government junior minister, plans to spend the evening with Jane Worthington, one of the opposition’s secretaries, things go disastrously wrong leading to a hilarious chain of events. Lies, deceit and disguises turns the rest of the evening into a never ending maelstrom of mayhem.

Group Information
Ballycogley Players Drama Group have been in existence for 49 years and compete annually on the amateur drama circuit. We were delighted to be crowned All Ireland Confined Drama Champions in 2018 with our production of the “The Night Alive” by Conor McPhearson. In this only our 3rd year competing in the Open Section of the Drama circuit we are delighted to welcome on board All-Ireland Open winning director, Pat Whelan as our director this year. We hope you enjoy our production of “Out Of Order”.

Ballyshannon Drama Society

Presenting “Margaret”

By Shaun Byrne.

Play Synopsis

Margaret is in her late 80s. At times she is her old self, sharp, lucid, clear; other times confused, frightened and frustrated. She talks to an imagined Denis, to herself, to the audience. The play joins her in the last days of her life in the Ritz Hotel suffering from dementia and explores her troubled relationships: with the Irish, the miners, her children, the public, her male colleagues, and the fallout from The Falklands War; as past demons, guilts and successes return to torment, flatter and deceive her. ‘You have no enemies you say? If you have none, then small is the work that you have done.’

Group Information

Ballyshannon Drama Society have hosted an Annual Drama Festival since 1952. The group won the All Ireland One Act in 1958 with ‘Spreading the News’ and in 2000 with ‘The Extraordinary Revelations of Orca the Goldfish’. In 1961 they won the All Ireland in Athlone with ‘Old Road’ and in 2011 took the All Ireland Confined with ‘Steel Magnolias’. In 2014 they qualified for the Open Finals in Athlone with ‘The Gingerbread Lady’ , in 2015 with ‘God of Carnage’ and in 2016 with Harold Pinter’s ‘Old Times’, Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ in 2019, in 2022 with Arthur Miller’s ‘All My Sons’ and in 2023 with Edward Albee’s ‘A Delicate Balance’, with Rachel O’Connor winning Best Supporting Actress. The group were 2017 runners up in the One Act Finals with Shelagh Stephenson’s ‘Five Kinds of Silence’. We hosted the All Ireland One Act Finals in both 1996 and in 2014, and the All Ireland Confined Drama Finals in 2022.