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Amateur drama is taking centre stage in Athlone, Co Westmeath as the first competitors in the 2024 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival take to the boards later.
Nine groups will battle it out in the Dean Crowe Theatre from tonight until 10 May in the 71st festival.
Three plays never-before performed will feature in the finals including a new Irish play, “Margaret”, while two first time qualifiers are also competing.
One of the finalists, Wexford Drama Group, are set to perform tomorrow night with their play “How I Learned to Drive”, by Paula Vogel.
Paul Walsh directed the play and has been Chair of Wexford Drama Group for about ten years.
“This is my last year. I will still be involved with the group absolutely.
“I direct and I act for the group. I have been really lucky with the group. We’ve got to Athlone to the All Ireland finals lots of times,” he said.
He added that he has waited a long time for the opportunity to do this play.
“It’s a Pulitzer Prize winning play, I have wanted to do it for years. It’s great to get to do it, it’s a very unusual play.
“It’s taken out of time and goes across thirty years,” he said.
The play is semi-autobiographical about Paula Vogel and her journey from being poor in Baltimore Maryland to becoming a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, according to Mr Walsh who also believes she uses the convention of these driving lessons with her uncle – as almost a series of fables about how to grow up and find your voice.
It is a small cast who started rehearsing in September, and they’ve been performing the piece since the middle of February.
The play’s central protagonist is performed by Seona O’Connor who plays ‘Li’l Bit’.
“The play is about a woman in her mid-30s who is bringing the audience on the journey of her life and the abuse that she endured.
“I play Li’l Bit as an 11-year-old all the way up to 35.
” At the end of the play, she is basically just coming to terms with the trauma, forgiving, and moving on with her life,” she said.
Ms O’Connor, who works in a mental health centre in New Ross, said it is a tough job, and so she looks forward to rehearsals after work.
“It’s nice to just be able to completely turn into somebody else I suppose in the night time”.
The Festival Fringe kicked off last Saturday with the Athlone Film Festival and other film related events, while throughout the week there are musical and afternoon theatre performances, poetry in the park and a guided walking tour.
The winners of the 2024 All Ireland Confined Final will also be confirmed, with one group performing last night as part of the Fringe.
The Dunmore Amateur Dramatic Group took to the stage with Brian Friel’s play “Faith Healer”.
Director Philip McDonnell said that the first time they came on the circuit was with Brian Friel’s “Philidelphia Here I Come”, 19 years ago.
“We’re back with his masterpiece and it’s a fantastic production, if I may say so.
“Frank is a faith healer who travels Wales and Scotland with his wife, which he likes to call his mistress and his manager Teddy, and his cure is not reliable.
“Brian Friel himself has said that this play is some kind of a metaphor for the life of the artist.
“Sometimes when we’re going from venue to venue on the circuit it feels a little bit like that too,” said Mr McDonnell.
The cast have travelled the country with their performance and Mr McDonnell believes there is a demand for drama among Irish audiences.
“Since Covid the numbers have come back storming.
“There’s a huge appetite for drama. I think one of the things that attracts the most is the storytelling in it. This play is a great example of storytelling,” he said.
Mr McDonnell described how people come to them and say they have been thinking about the play for days.
“It’s making an impact on people. It’s getting people to think and to change their views, and to think about drama and life in general.”
Thousands of people are expected to visit Athlone over the coming week with Festival Director Regina Bushell anticipating bumper audiences.
“The number of people who actually visit the town over the ten days, we’ve nine nights of the festival and the tenth night is the award ceremony, it’s a great boost for the town in so many, many, many ways. It’s a great celebration,” said Ms Bushell.
With competitors from all over the country, Ms Bushell said this years groups are “the cream of the crop” and it will be difficult for adjudicator Tom Byrne to pick the winner.
“It’s his first time to do Athlone so he will certainly be challenged.
“Everybody is at such a standard that they are all winners already, but when they get to Athlone they’re back on a level playing field again so it’s all to play for”.
Tune into RTÉ’s Nationwide on Wednesday 8 May on RTÉ One which will be broadcast from the Drama Festival in Athlone
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