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.
