Newry News and Irish Fun
Whatever else, 2011 Newry Drama Festival will be best remembered for our adjudicator, Tony Rushforth. The Newry audience was enthralled and educated by him all week. I believe he is the best since the late lamented Alan Nichol.
Thursday night’s helping at the Drama Festival was Clarence’s interpretation of Richard Everett’s ‘Entertaining Angels’.
I confess to being very tired of Friel’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ – having seen it too often – and disappointment on learning that Newpoint had chosen it this year for the Open Circuit.
Tonight the patrons of Newry Drama Festival are in for a real treat with what is undoubtedly one of my favourite plays, “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. The Lifford Players of Donegal are old friends and have been competing for as long as anybody can remember. They are worthy representatives of everyone’s favourite county.
What makes Newry Drama Festival unique is the high proportion of competing teams from across the border. This greatly enriches our experience as an audience and guarantees fierce competition for qualifying points.
The nine plays which make up this year’s Newry Amateur Drama Festival will be outlined in turn. We kick off Friday evening (8.00 pm at the Town Hall) with Rosemary Drama Group of Belfast, one of my own favourite groups.
Thursday saw some beautiful things happen. We went to see the new storage facilities which during the daytime would prove awkward to offload into and out of. As I was having a conversation with Gerard Duffy outside The Bank, luck would have it that Mr David Downey had a chat with us.
It was amateur drama but it was on a competitive level as well: and not just a home performance but travelling to various venues with the hope of returning this group to the All-Ireland finals.
It was the 26th February 2010: for many, just a normal Friday and the beginning of the weekend. I was, as usual, being underwhelmed by the significance of this date. Another birthday and little to celebrate! Why would I celebrate?