A classic drama loosely based on real life border smuggling in central Donegal hit the stage of the Balor Theatre last night to rave reviews.
‘A Winter Wedding’, by famous playwright Tomas MacAnna, is directed by Kieran Quinn of the Ballybofey-based Balor DCA and runs for three more nights.
When he was just 18, in 1944, MacAnna, from Dundalk, joined the Customs service and was immediately transferred to Ballyshannon. There, his experience of the border region’s smuggling culture inspired what would become one of his best-known stage plays. However, it was denounced in Donegal at the time as a libel on the county’s inhabitants.
Set in the famous Biddy’s O’Barnes, A Winter Wedding tells the story of a man who uses his wife’s easygoing father, a customs officer, to smuggle illegal goods across the border causing frictions within the family.
A scene in ‘Biddy’s’ during rehearsals for A Winter Wedding.
You are now in the McDara Republic, spreading from ‘The Gap’ and down along the border to the Twin Towns of Ballybofey and Stranorlar. Chief industry, smuggling; chief occupation, drinkin’; chief pastime, tellin’ dirty yarns.
The Donegal borderland during the ‘Emergency’ is an independent undeclared republic of outcasts and ‘outlaws, rogues and thieves and liars’.
A Winter Wedding was first produced in 1956 at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. Subsequent productions treaded the boards at The Balor in the 1980’s and again in the ‘90’s. Don’t miss this latest retelling of a classic local drama. While the names of the local characters are fictional, you might just recognise some of them!
A Winter Wedding opens at at 8pm tonight, the second of a four night run. To book tickets, call the Balor Box Office on 07491 31840 or log onto www.balorartscentre.com
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