Moving play performed in Tipperary traces life in 1950s Ireland to the present day

Anne Cousins brought her poetry play to Fethard and District Daycare Centre as part of the Bealtaine Festival, supported by Tipperary County Councils Arts and Culture Programme.

The title of the play is “What we wear when we go out” it traced life in Ireland from the mid 1950s to the present day, through story, music and props in the form of clothes from the different decades.

Anne’s story resonated with many of the audience, who lived a similar rural life. Where cows were milked by hand and the Rosary was recited nightly.

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She recounted her disastrous Grads dance (Debs) to her wedding day and the arrival of her children and their growing up and going to discos. (How many of us threw a coat over our nightie to go collect our offspring from a disco? Hoping that we didn’t have to leave the car to gather them up!)

Her pride and concern for her daughter who, as a Garda, was called in to the Dublin riots.

How she and her siblings sorted through her father’s clothes after his death and showed us the coat she kept and still wears.

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Anne’s performance was well received and there was much reminiscing afterwards.

The centre would like to thank Anne for her Play and the Festival in a Van team. Thanks were given also to Melanie Scott and Liz Powell of Tipperary County Councils Arts & Culture section.