Tonight, we welcome the Castleblayney Players to the Abbey Centre, with their production of ‘No Going Back’ by Joe Hanratty.
No Going Back tells the story of two brothers who have taken part in the Irish War of Independence and they both carry scars from that conflict that cannot easily be shaken off. Tom the IRA Captain and his reliable back up man Jimmy have engaged in a lot of the fighting while Tom’s younger brother Michael has also seen his share of violence and has been at the receiving end of it too. After the Civil War they both settle down to life in a farm that was once part of their family heritage. That too carries its own ghosts of the past. But their experiences of conflict continue to come back and impact on their lives. Their story is complicated by Michael’s love for Ruth, the daughter of a local farmer who also has been the victim of “those terrible times” as Tom calls them. It all begins to close in on Michael who is forced to seek support from psychiatrist Dr. Fitzpatrick and this engagement opens up some things that Tom and Jimmy feel are best forgotten.
Castleblayney Players was founded in 1990 and their first production was ‘Philadelphia Here I Come’. Since then, they have produced many plays and have won many awards including the ADCI Confined All Ireland with ‘Blue Remembered Hills’, Dundalk International Festival with ‘The Great Hunger’, and represented Ireland in the World Drama Festival in Monaco with ‘At the Black Pig’s Dyke’. Their most recent production was the hilarious comedy ‘Anyone Can Rob a Bank’.
Curtain is at 8pm, and tickets are available online: https://abbeycentre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173652831
