Cloughjordan
Drama Group
Cloughjordan Drama Group goes on strike!
Cloughjordan Drama Group present their 45th production with Frank McGuinness’s The Factory Girls. This well-written play will pull on your heartstrings as you root for five women: poverty-stricken, uneducated, but determined and courageous. You will watch their evolution and growth throughout the play, and wonder if they can possibly prevail against all the forces against them.
This play was first performed in 1982 and as such was a play for its times – written in deep recession, and set in a previous recession – and as such it is an apt play for our current times and will be sure to strike chords with the audience.
This is a play about empowerment, growth and victory. The play follows their refusal to passively accept the negative circumstances, which are attacking them from all sides and resolve to protest.
Conflict is created by Rohan, the cruel factory manager (played by Nigel Quinlan in a role you’ll love to hate) and the union rep (played by Ger Cleary) who’s trying to play both sides. Then add in the janitor, Stan ( played by Bawney Hayes) who uses every opportunity to inform management of all happenings on the factory floor.
The relationships between the five women are subtle and dynamic. Through the witty and often poignant exchanges among the girls we gain an insight into the backgrounds and personalities of each of the five: their qualities and short-comings. From the close-but-fraught relationship between Ellen and Una, to the quiet Rebecca (and it’s the quiet ones you need to watch, isn’t it?), to the bloodied-but-unbowed Vera and the young whippersnapper Rosemary who thinks she knows it all and is not going to be intimidated by anybody, the exchanges between the five women provide a powerful mixture of humour, laughter, and sadness.
Seamus Costello, as always, creatively directs this year’s production of The Factory Girls. Ellen is played by Tracy Culleton in her debut role, Una is played by Mary Carroll and Rebecca by Laura Williams. Maureen Shelly ably plays the courageous Vera and Fiona Heffernan is cast as Rosemary.
This production is of special significance for Bawney Hayes who this year will thread the boards for the 40th consecutive year. This is a fantastic achievement and marks his dedication to the group and to amateur drama in general. His unfaltering commitment is much to be admired. Here’s to another 40!
This is a play which is sure to produce laughs as you observe the banter among the five factory girls but is also thought provoking and heart-rending.
The play is being staged in the Parochial Hall, Cloughjordan @ 8.30pm on Friday 25th, Saturday 26th, Sunday 27th of February, Wednesday 2nd, Friday 4th and Saturday 5th of March 2011. Come and join us for a night of drama.
Booking essential: 087-1482628
The group have an unbroken annual run of productions since 1966, in the past the group have spread their talent to a summer production to partake in the local Arts Festival.
Coming up
click on an event for more details