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THE EATERY CAFE

OPEN DAILY Monday to Friday 9.30 - 3.30The hottest spot for breakfast or lunch.Free Wifi Available

RECIPE

Sift flour into a mixing bowl.

Make a hole in the centre of the flour. Slowly add beer while whisking together until it forms a smooth batter.

Dip the sausages in the batter and carefully add to your deep fat fryer.

Deep fry until golden brown.

Serve with salad and chips.

Angie’s Kinnegar Beer Battered Sausages

Ingredients:

Vegetarian Sausages (3 per person)

Approx 150 ml of Kinnegar Beer

250 g self-raising flour (gluten free)

On Frank McGuinnessby Jessica Traynor, Literary Manager of the Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre of Ireland.

Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw, toured from the Abbey to BAM in New York. His adaptation of James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ delighted Abbey audiences at Christmas 2012. McGuinness’s adaptations demonstrate his keen psychological insight into some of the most intriguing characters of the Irish, European and classical canon, while maintaining the stark lyricism of his own theatrical idiom.

Frank McGuinness is a playwright of whom Donegal and its people can be truly proud. His work enshrines the Donegal people and landscape at the heart of some of the most vital Irish drama of the past thirty years.

PROFILE

Hailing from Buncrana, Frank McGuinness is one of Ireland’s foremost playwrights. Frank’s work includes both original plays and adaptations, and engages with themes as various as both World Wars, Ulster loyalism, sectarian violence, the rights of women, the shifting sands of memory, the battleground of family life, and his beloved Donegal.

His first major success was ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’, produced on the Peacock stage in 1985, and for which he was awarded the London Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. A passionate and ground-breaking play, it takes as its subject matter a group of young soldiers and their physical and spiritual journey towards the Somme, a cataclysmic event which took place on the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. The play deals with the forging of a new loyalism in the fires of World War I, and also explores the deep bonds between the men which encompass both love and violence.

Recent plays have included ‘Greta Garbo Came to Donegal’, which looks at the unexpected arrival of the mysterious, elegant and incisive Garbo, just as the civil rights movement in the North begins to gather momentum, and ‘The Hanging Gardens.’ The latter again takes Donegal as its setting, with its protagonist, a novelist slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s, facing a reunion with his divided and competitive family. Themes of memory, history, and patriarchal control are explored in a play both elegiac and savage.

McGuinness has also adapted many classic plays with much success. In 1997, his adaptation of Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ won him a Tony Award, and his 2010 adaptation of that playwright’s ‘John Gabriel Borkman’, starring

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The Kings of the Kilburn High RoadLivin’ Dred Theatre Company

Wednesday 17 & Thursday 18 Feb @ 8pm Tickets: €20 / €15

DRAMA

Written by Jimmy Murphy. Directed by Padraic McIntyre.A wonderful play full of humour and human sadness. In the mid-1970s a group of young men left their homes in the West of Ireland, took the boat out of Dublin Bay and sailed across the sea to England in the hope of making their fortunes and returning home. Twenty-fi ve years later only one, Jackie Flavin, makes it home, but does so in a coffi n. The Kings of the Kilburn High Road takes place on the day the winners and losers of the group meet up to drink to Jackie Flavin’s memory and looks at their lives, lost dreams and their place in the new Ireland.

In the summer of 2000 we were fortunate to host the original Red Kettle Theatre production of this play. Ticket sales rocketed when an elderly Australian nun rang in to Highland Radio to complain vociferously about the content and strong language. Angry nuns aside, the play has since become something of an Irish classic, and was even adapted into a movie in 2007. Laurence Blake takes up the story: “The last time I saw the show it was a very moving experience and not without some controversy. I found the show very real, relevant and upsetting

for it brought to life many stories that I had heard from local workmen who had spent years working as navvies throughout the UK.It’s hard to believe that was 16 years ago and some commentators actually argued that these events never took place. I ended up on a “head to head” with a visiting nun on local radio who argued that a land of saints and scholars could never have produced such depraved, broken and drunken men. Sadly nothing could be further from the truth and the depiction as outlined in the play was very real and all too true to life. But be sure to go and see the show for yourself and make up your own mind.In more recent times and again as a result of recession, hard times and unemployment, many of our skilled and unskilled workers were forced to emigrate once more. However most of these ended up not just in the UK but in far fl ung corners of the world and especially Australia. From what I hear from the returning Aussie workers, especially those on building sites and the mines--events and happenings as portrayed in the Kings of the Kilburn High Road are just as applicable today in such areas as Perth, Sydney, The Northern Territory or Queensland.”

Cast: GIT – Malcolm Adams, SHAY – Arthur Riordan, JAP – Phelim Drew, MAURTEEN – Seamus O’Rourke, JOE – Charlie Bonner

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Of Mice and MenRail Theatre Company

Tuesday 23 at 8pm & Wednesday 24 February at 10am and 1pmTickets: 8pm €15 / €12, matinees €10

DRAMA

Of Mice and Men is a powerful portrait of the American spirit and a heartbreaking testament to the bonds of friendship. Set in California during the Great Depression, it follows two migrant workers George, a sharp but uneducated short-tempered man, and Lennie, a large but simple-minded man. Together they hope to one day acquire their own piece of land. But when Lennie stirs up trouble on the

job, George must choose between protecting his friend or staying the course towards his version of the American dream. Adapted by John Steinbeck from his novel of the same name it was chosen as Best Play that year by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. We have an evening performance on Tuesday 23rd February and two matinee performances on Wednesday 24th February at 10am and 1pm.

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Beneath an Irish Sky by Kieran KellyDramatic Reading directed by David Grant

Tuesday 22 March at 8pmTickets: €5

A Terrible Beauty: Remembering 1916

Our cover art is by Ramelton artist Laura Buchanan and is inspired by photographs of the 1916 Rising. We are celebrating and remembering those events with three shows this Easter, to coincide with the centenary of this event which brought about our modern nation.

We have a dramatic reading of a new play Beneath an Irish Sky by local historian Kieran Kelly, The Rising features two Donegal actors John Ruddy and Brian Gillespie while Left Behind: Songs of the 1916 Widows is a music recital inspired by the women involved in The Rising.

DRAMA/MUSIC

“At first glance, the town of Letterkenny appears to have little connection to the events of Easter Week 1916. The Pulpit of the Four Masters in St. Eunan’s Cathedral was designed and sculpted by the family of Patrick Pearse and Joseph Sweeney, who fought in the GPO, attended St. Eunan’s College, but the town was affected, like the whole country was, by the actions of the rebels in the capital one hundred years ago.

“Beneath an Irish Sky is my tale of a character from Letterkenny, Brendan McDaid, as he recalls years later how he moved from the peaceful Nationalism of the Ancient Order of Hibernians into the more militant Republicanism of Sinn Féin as a direct consequence of the 1916 Rising. This life altering decision will have far reaching implications for both himself and his family. Based on research from eyewitness testimonies and archive newspaper reports, Letterkenny between 1914 and 1921 serves as the backdrop to his journey.

“A local historian at heart, Beneath an Irish Sky is my first full length play and I am delighted that this dramatic reading will be taking place as part of the centenary commemorations in An Grianán Theatre.” Kieran Kelly

The British troops departing Letterkenny in 1922 following the War of Independence

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McKeague and O’Brien present The Rising and by way of Interludes World War IPowerscourt Productions and Co-Motion Media

Wednesday 23 March at 8pm, also matinee on Wednesday 23 March at 12pm Tickets: €15 / 12 for the evening show and €10 for the matinee

Left Behind - The Widows of 1916Michelle O’Rourke

Friday 1 April at 8pmTickets: €15 / €12

Relive the tumultuous days of the 1916 Rising through the eyes of two friendly adversaries, O’Brien, a Catholic, and Mc Keague, a Protestant. Over an action packed 90 minutes O’Brien and McKeague will tell the story of this pivotal event in Irish history in vaudeville style, with humour, song and dance, as they re-enact the Rising and the events that led to it, including World War 1.

“90 minutes of exhilarating and terrifying factual theatre” The Irish Times

John D Ruddy is a Letterkenny based actor whose recent roles include Fiesta, The 39 Steps and I Would Walk These Fields Again.

A native of Letterkenny, Brian Gillespie now lives in London where he is the artistic director of B-Hybrid Dance.

Director: Joe O’ByrneChoreographer: Breandán de Gallaí

Left Behind: Songs of the 1916 Widows

“More so than any art form, music can place us squarely in this emotional space. With these songs, we hope to give life to some of these feelings, these emotions and the sense of loss felt by many women and children who were left behind by men who were dominated by what they felt was a higher calling.” Soprano Michelle O’Rourke.

“So much of our engagement with history is purely political, and so rarely we allow ourselves to read between the lines to find human realities,” adds composer Simon O’Connor.

Left Behind is a new collection of songs which draws on the experiences of women such as Lillie Connolly, Grace and Muriel Gifford, Agnes Mallin and others involved in the Rising. Beginning life as simple vocal/piano pieces, these songs have been transformed with the addition of O’Connor’s former bandmates from celebrated Dublin rock band The Jimmy Cake.

“ The moody, slender, ethereal settings of Left Behind … held together by O’Rourke and the extraordinary beauty of her voice.” Michael Dervan, The Irish Times

5

After Miss JuliePrime Cut Productions

Saturday 26 March at 8pmTickets: €15 / €12

DRAMA

Strindberg’s cruelest love story re-imagined by Patrick Marber

Co. Fermanagh VE Day 1945. Celebrations in every corner of Northern Ireland. Miss Julie descends into the servants’ kitchen of her father’s country mansion in search of the chauffeur John. Over one long balmy night, Miss Julie’s world is turned head over heels.

This passionate tragedy was adapted by Patrick Marber from Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Marber is best known for his string of acclaimed plays including Dealer’s Choice, Don Juan in Soho and Closer, and his BAFTA-winning films Notes on a Scandal and Closer. Brought to you by Prime Cut Productions whose body of work includes Woman and Scarecrow, Blackbird, The Conquest of Happiness, I Am My own Wife, the Chilean Trilogy, The God Of Carnage, Mydidae and Scorch. Suitable for 14 plus.

“Patrick Marber is the finest British dramatist of his generation.”The Daily Telegraph

Cast: Pauline Hutton, Ciaran McMenamin, Lisa Dwyer Hogg

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The Cripple of InishmaanBardic Theatre Rep

Saturday 9 April at 8pmTickets: €15 / €12

“The most politically incorrect play … and probably the funniest”The Daily Mail.

Recently brought to mainstream public attention by Daniel Radcliffe’s multi award winning performances in the West End Production, Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan is set on the remote island of Inishmaan off the west coast of Ireland. Word arrives that a Hollywood film is being made on the neighbouring island of Inishmore. The one person who wants to be in the film more than anybody is young Cripple Billy, if only to break away from the bitter tedium of his daily life.‘The Cripple Of Inishmaan’ examines an ordinary coming of age in extraordinary circumstances and shows once more that playwright Martin McDonagh is master of the deepest, darkest and most powerful humour. Since its premier at the National Theatre in 1996 McDonagh’s work has gone on to achieve its rightful place in the great pantheon of Irish drama.

“Disgracefully funny”The Telegraph

“Top notch comedy”Time Out Magazine

Patrons are asked to note that the play contains strong language.

Pleasure Ground by Jarlath TivnanFregoli Theatre Co

Friday 22 April at 8pmTickets: €15 / €12

Jarlath Tivnan, who put in such a great performance in Decadent Theatre’s recent Vernon God Little, returns to An Grianán with his play Pleasure Ground, winner of the Michael Diskin Arts Bursary Award 2015.

‘Back then I thought it was perfection. But things change. Oh yes, they do.’

A group of friends who’ve gone their separate ways meet back at their teenage haunt, the town, park and playground, known as the Pleasure Ground. The town is dying, the Pleasure Ground’s glory has faded, and life hasn’t quite matched up to youthful expectations. Over their night together, buried secrets become unearthed, past grievances boil over, and scores are settled.

Cast: Kate Murray, Peter Shine, Eilish McCarthy and Jarlath Tivnan.

Letterkenny native Rob McFeely is the Assistant Director on this production.

NB: suitable ages 15+Contains strong language, adult content

DRAMA DRAMA

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Silent by Pat KinevaneFishamble

Thursday 28 April at 8pmTickets: €16 / €12

Homeless McGoldrig once had splendid things. But he has lost it all – including his mind. He now dives into the wonderful wounds of his past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino, in this brave, bold, beautiful production. Silent is currently wowing audiences on its extensive Irish tour and internationally in Europe and the USA.Fishamble: The New Play Company is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning company dedicated to new work for the theatre. Recent productions presented on major Irish and international tours include Tiny Plays for Ireland by 25 writers, The Pride of Parnell Street by Sebastian Barry, and Forgotten also by Pat Kinevane.

Little John Nee recommends Silent by Pat Kinevane

I am delighted to be asked to tell you about Pat Kinevane’s “Silent” for I can say with certainty that if you go to see the show on the basis of my recommendation you will be eternally grateful to me. To put it very simply Pat Kinevane is one of my favourite writers and performers on the whole planet, I come away from his shows simultaneously entertained, inspired and humbled and the world is always a richer place as I travel home; only great theatre can do that; it’s rare don’t miss it!

DRAMA

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Donegal Master FiddlersSaturday 14 May at 8pmTickets: €15 / €10

The Donegal Master Fiddlers gala concert is a celebration of the lifetime achievement of four of the county’s greatest living traditional fiddlers, Jimmy and Vincent Campbell, Dinny McLaughlin and Danny Meehan, as part of the Bealtaine Festival for older people. In addition there will be a host of other Donegal fiddlers who have been influenced by them. Each Master Fiddler will be introduced in turn by a younger renowned fiddler, Jimmy and Vincent by Martin McGinley, Danny by Aidan O’Donnell and Dinny by Roisin Harrigan.

This feast of traditional Irish music will also feature the Campbells (Vincent, Jimmy and his son Peter), Dinny McLaughlin’s group (Dinny, Clodagh Warnock, Edel McLaughlin and Roisin Harrigan) and Fidil featuring Ciarán O’Maonaigh, Aidan O’Donnell, and Damien McGeehan. The opening performance of this incredible night of music will come from an even younger generation of musicians drawn from Paul Harrigan’s Ceol na Coille music school.

MUSIC

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La BohèmeOpera Theatre Company

Wednesday 25 May at 8pmTickets: €30 / €27

This is the poster from the original production of La Bohème which premiered in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio. Since then many of the greats have performed Puccini’s timeless classic. On Wednesday 25th May Opera Theatre Company will present La Bohème directed by Ben Barnes with a sterling cast of Irish and international singers, including rising star soprano Máire Flavin (Mimi), Argentinian tenor Pablo Bemsch (Rodolfo), Sinead Campbell-Wallace (Musetta), Charles Rice (Marcello), Padraic Rowan (Colline) and Rory Musgrave (Schaunard), together with a professional chorus of twelve and a thirteen member chamber orchestra conducted by Andrew Greenwood.

Opera Theatre Company celebrates 30 years touring opera throughout Ireland in 2016.

La Bohème will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.

OPERA

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The Birthday PartyLondon Classic Theatre Company

Thursday 26 May at 8pmTickets: €20 / €18

“There’s a gentleman living here. He’s got a birthday today, and he’s forgotten all about it. So we’re going to remind him. We’re going to give him a party.”

Playwright, director, actor, poet and political activist, Harold Pinter was born on 10 October 1930 in East London. He wrote twenty-nine plays including Betrayal, Old Times, The Homecoming and The Caretaker. In 2005, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Patricia McBride, Director, An Grianán Theatre recommends The Birthday Party.

“I fi rst came across The Birthday Party when I was a student at college in the 1980s and I have been a fan of Pinter’s work ever since. The Birthday Party is a drama of the absurd, a dark and unsettling “comedy of menace” as Pinter coined it. It is darkly comic, full of pauses and silences which build the growing tension. It’s this use of language that drew me to his work. The sense of unease and menace in the play is palpable. The two central characters, an Irishman and a Jewish man, are thinly disguised thugs who brutally interrogate and terrorise a helpless victim, before leading him away to his fate. In those times disappearances and abductions were common in Northern Ireland and the play impacted strongly on me. I also like his unique take on middle class life: he once answered what are your plays about by saying “the weasel under the cocktail cabinet”!”

DRAMA

For this London Classic Theatre Company Production the cast is Jonathan Ashley (Goldberg), Gareth Bennett-Ryan (Stanley), Cheryl Kennedy (Meg), Ged McKenna (Petey), Declan Rodgers (McCann) and Imogen Wilde (Lulu).

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Theatre Artist In Residence

“Hello, I’m Guy Le Jeune, a writer, theatre maker and this year, the Theatre Artist In Residence for An Grianán Theatre and Donegal County Council. Some of you might have seen my play Fiesta. This residency is funded directly by the Arts Council and it is an opportunity for me to work on a number of exciting theatre projects within the county. I started in July 2015, researching and writing about Canon James McDyer of Glencolmcille. The research involved chatting to people who knew him and listening to their reminiscences. From that came the play, I Would Walk These Fields Again, due to be revived for a short tour in May.”

“I’m currently working on a project about the UNIFI factory; the stories, the people and its history. I’m running reminiscence sessions over the next few months which will culminate in a

show during the Earagail Arts Festival in July. I’ll also be working with the Tory islanders. I’m available and interested in exploring other ideas for theatre pieces too. If you are interested in talking about an idea I’d be more than happy to make the time. You can contact me on 086 832 6157 or by email guylejeune@cashla.org and through Facebook and Twitter.”

PROFILE

Pic from the 2014 Production of Fiesta

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AT A GLANCE

ARTFORM DATE TITLE COMPANYFEBRUARY

DRAMA Wed 17 & Thur 18 The Kings of the Kilburn High Road Livin' Dred Theatre Co

DRAMA Tues 23 & Wed 24 Of Mice and Men Rail Theatre Co/Mullingar Arts Centre

MUSIC Sat 27 The Ultimate Eagles Joe Gallagher Promotions

MARCH

MUSICAL Tues 1 to Sat 5 Jesus Christ Superstar Letterkenny Musical Society

MUSIC Fri 11 Dominic Kirwan

COMEDY Sat 12 Des Bishop

FAMILY Sat 19 & Sun 20 Forristal School of Dance

DRAMA Tues 22 Beneath An Irish Sky by Kieran Kelly

DRAMA Wed 23 The RisingPowerscourt Productions andCo-Motion Media

DRAMA Sat 26 After Miss Julie Prime Cut Productions

MUSIC Mon 28 Harlem Gospel Choir

APRIL

MUSIC Fri 1 Left Behind - The Widows of 1916

DRAMA Sat 9 The Cripple of Inishmann Bardic Theatre Rep

MUSIC Tues 5 Usher’s Island

DRAMA Sat 9 The Cripple of Inishmann Bardic Theatre Rep

MUSIC Thur 14 And Finally Phil Collins

MUSICAL Fri 15 & Sat 16 Gutz the Musical

DRAMA Fri 22 Pleasure Ground Fregoli Theatre

FAMILY Sat 23 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Riverbank Productions

DRAMA Sun 24 The Patriot Game Donegal Drama Circle

DRAMA Thur 28 Silent Fishamble The New Play Company

DRAMA/COMEDY Fri 29 & Sat 30 Nobody's Talking to Me Crokey Hill Players

MAY

VARIETY Wed 4 The Intimate Magic Show Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee

DRAMA Thur 5 & Fri 6"A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant

DRAMA Sat 7 & Sun 8The History of the Peace (According to my Ma!)

Martin Lynch and Grimes & McKee

MUSIC Sat 14 Donegal Master Fiddlers

OPERA Wed 25 La Bohème Opera Theatre Co

DRAMA Thur 26 The Birthday Party London Classic Theatre Company

MUSIC Fri 27 We Banjo 3

JUNE

COMEDY Wed 8 Reginald D Hunter

DRAMA Fri 24 & Sat 25 God Bless The Child Everyman Theatre

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