Ballyshannon Drama Society

Don’t miss your last few chances to see ‘Margaret’ by Shaun Byrne, the multi-award winning show produced by Ballyshannon Drama Society, as it wraps up the festival season with two more local performances, a trip north to the Ulster Final, and the All Ireland Final in Athlone in May.

‘Margaret’ is back on the road again this week, with a performance in An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny, on Friday the 26th of April, and the Ulster Drama Final performance in The Theatre at the Mill in Newtonabbey on Saturday the 27th.

The show will return home to Ballyshannon for one final performance in the Abbey Arts Centre, on Monday May 6th, before appearing in the All Ireland Drama Final in the Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone on Friday, May 10th.

Upcoming Dates:

Letterkenny, An Grianan Theatre – Friday April 26th
Booking: https://shorturl.at/koJNP

Newtownabbey, The Ulster Finals, The Theatre at The Mill – Saturday April 27th
Booking: https://theatreatthemill.com/book/?show=65801

Ballyshannon, Abbey Arts Centre – Monday May 6th
Booking: https://abbeycentre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173655070

Athlone, The All Ireland Drama Finals, the Dean Crowe Theatre – Friday May 10th
Booking: https://www.deancrowetheatre.com/dean_event/margaret/

‘Margaret’ cleaned up at the Glenamaddy Festival at the weekend, taking home a raft of trophies, including the show’s 5th first place award, which positioned Ballyshannon Drama Society second on the ADCI Open League leaderboard.

The prizes included First Place in the Open section, Best Director for Monica Doherty, Best Actress for Rachel O’Connor, Best Set for Shaun Byrne, Monica Doherty and Shaun O’Connor, Best Lighting for Sean O’Connor, with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Shaun Byrne. With 8 festivals now completed, ‘Margaret’ has finished up with 5 first place, 2 second and 1 third on the leaderboard.

The All Ireland finals will take place in Athlone from the 2nd to the 10th of May. The team now await the draw on April 14th to find out when they will perform in the Dean Crowe Theatre.

If you missed the show on the circuit and can’t make it to Athlone, ‘Margaret’ will be in An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny, on Friday April 26th, with one more date in the Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon yet to be confirmed.

Book An Grianan here: https://angrianan.com/event/margaret/

‘Margaret’ adds a night in Letterkenny on the road to the All Ireland Drama Festival Finals in Athlone!

‘Margaret’, the award-winning circuit production by Ballyshannon Drama Society, written by Ballybofey’s Shaun Byrne, will run for one night only in An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny, on Friday, April 26th, 2024.
The production has qualified for the All Ireland Drama Festival in Athlone, and taken home multiple awards for actors Rachel O’Connor as Margaret and Shaun Byrne as Dennis, along with awards for director Monica Doherty and the sound and lighting team.
This date in the wonderful #angrianantheatre will give audiences in the north of the county an opportunity to see the show and enjoy the sparkling inventiveness of Shaun Byrne’s script, before the production heads to Athlone, with one more date yet to be confirmed for the Abbey Arts Centre in Ballyshannon.

Book early, and spread the word!

Congratulations to the cast and crew of ‘Margaret’ on winning the Portadown Drama Festival, their fourth win of the circuit.

Rachel O’Connor won Best Actress, and the show took the trophies for Best Stage Management and the Audience Award, with Shaun Byrne receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Having secured the all-important 36 points by last weekend, this win leaves ‘Margaret’ second in the Open League table, with two more festivals due to report results: the Mid-Mid Ulster Drama Festival (Carrickmore) tonight, and Glenamaddy Theatre Festival next weekend.

And the winners are…

Winner of the Open Section (Maureen Gallagher Award): ‘Margaret’ Ballyshannon Drama Society

Second Place Open (C. J. King Award): ‘A View From The Bridge’, Prosperous

Third Place Open (Jim Flynn Award): ‘Alone It Stands’, Balally Players

Best Producer Open (John Stephens Cup): Monica Doherty, ‘Margaret’, Ballyshannon Drama Society

Best Actress Open (Eoin Carney Award): Rachel O’Connor as Margaret, ‘Margaret’, Ballyshannon Drama Society

Best Actor Open (H. J. Travers Award): Robery Massey, Prosperous

First Place Confined (Commercial Hotel Cup): ‘The Lonesome West’, Enniskillen

Second Place Confined (Catherine Breslin Award): ‘New Electric Ballroom’, Newtownstewart

Third Place Confined: ‘No Going Back’, Castleblayney Players

Best Producer Confined (Hugh and Mary Daly Cup): ‘The Lonesome West’, Enniskillen

Best Actress Confined (Kathleen Fagan Award): Brid Mc Sorley, Newtonwstewart

Best Actor Confined (Saimer Cup/Paddy McLoone Award): Michael Boyle, Enniskillen

Phil Mc Loone Award for Outstanding Achievement by young person: Girleen, Clodagh Sweeney, ‘The Lonesome West’

Adjudicator Awards:
1. Superb Teamwork – Balally Players, ‘Alone It Stands’
2. Costumes – Phoenix Players, ‘Animal Farm’
3. Set and Props – The Ray Leonard Players, ‘Eclipsed’

Lighting (Margaret McGinley Award): ‘Margaret’, Ballyshannon

Best Stage Management (Maureen Kane Award): ‘Eclipsed’, Ray Leonard Players

Best Set (Mary Monaghan Award): ‘Margaret’, Ballyshannon Drama Society

Billy Myles Audience Award: ‘Margaret’, Ballyshannon Drama Society

Tonight, the closing night of the drama festival, we welcome Prosperous and their production of ‘A View From The Bridge’ by Arthur Miller.

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.

Prosperous Dramatic Society, from the village of Prosperous in Co Kildare has a treasured history of community-based theatre for over 100 years. The group has a broad membership, with ages from 7 – 70+ and operates from its own magical 90 seat theatre in the centre of the village producing a number of plays each year and of course it’s legendary Christmas Panto. The group actively supports many local charitable organisations and often partners with other local groups to bring drama to the wider local community. PDS is extremely proud of its members, many of whom are now All Ireland Award-winning Actors, Actresses, Stage Managers, Set Designers, Directors and the accomplishments that they have achieved through the spirit of volunteering and teamwork across generations.

Tonight at the drama festival, we welcome Balally Players and their production of ‘Alone It Stands’ by John Breen.

Alone It Stands tells the story of the 1978 rugby union match at Thomond Park between Irish provincial side, Munster, and the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks. A multitude of different, fictional, made- up fairy tales interlink to convey the hype and, indeed, “pashun” running up to and during the big match. Stories of birth, tragedy and building bonfires prevail, as the play charts the personal stories of various characters and their whereabouts on the momentous day. In the play, six actors play 62 roles including the Munster team, the New Zealanders playing on the All Blacks team, the two coaches, the ref, the crowd, the press, a pregnant woman, Bunratty singers, several children, a dog and even the ball itself.

The Balally Players Theatre Company was founded in 1982 and is based in Balally, located between the villages of Dundrum and Sandyford in Dublin. Most years, the Company produce one-act plays for the Festival Circuit, a Christmas Variety show, one or two full-length productions, and an outdoor summer Shakespeare production. Our productions cover a wide range of genres and have enjoyed considerable success nationally on the One-Act Festival Circuit and internationally having been performed in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Monaco and the USA.

Tonight at the Drama Festival we welcome Ballyshannon Drama Society in presenting ‘Margaret’ by Shaun Byrne.

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.’

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.