Hinterland brings Playboy of the Western World to Carrick-on-Suir theatre for two nights

New cast members Jordan Freeman, who plays Sara Tansey; Saoirse Murphy, who plays Susan Brady and Jess O’Donovan who plays Honor Blake in Hinterland's production of Playboy of the Western World. 

A community theatre production of Playboy of the Western World has sold-out two nights at Carrick-on-Suir’s Strand Theatre this coming weekend ahead of its entry into the prestigious RTE All-Ireland Drama Festival.   

JM Synge’s controversial masterpiece about a man who boasts of murdering his father is being brought to the stage of the Strand by Hinterland theatre group comprising a cast of established and new actors, traditional musicians and backstage crew from south Tipperary and counties Kilkenny and Waterford.   

Spearheading the production is Carrick-on-Suir actor, musician and playwright Robert Power who plays the lead role of Christy Mahon and is the director. He is also co-producing the play with Electra Grant from Owning who fills the shoes of the female lead, Pegeen Mike.  

Tickets for this Friday and Saturday night’s performances of Playboy sold-out more than two weeks ago.

Robert Power is delighted with the public interest in the production, which features a strong contingent of actors from Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel and their hinterlands. 

The inspiration for staging the Playboy came from a conversation he had one day in Carrick-on-Suir  with veteran local actor Walter Dunphy of Brewery Lane Drama Group. 

They were talking about drama and Walter told him he would love to play the role of the father, Old Mahon, in Playboy of the Western World. 

 “It was one of the first plays I read when I first studied drama and I loved it. It’s the most quintessential Irish play,” says Robert.  

The Covid pandemic stalled Robert’s plans for the production for two years but when the restrictions finally lifted last year he set about turning the idea into reality. 

He duly cast Walter in his dream role and put together a touring troupe of actors and backstage crew and called the community theatre project, Hinterland.   The drama that caused riots when it was first staged at The Abbey Theatre in January 1907 , was performed at seven small  venues in counties Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny last August. 

Kilcash Community Centre, Clonacody House, Fethard; the Marian Hall in Owning and Parish Hall in Clonea-Power were among the places the Hinterland players performed. 

 The tour ended with a performance on the Aran Island of Inish Meáin where Robert points out there is a number of Carrick-on-Suir people living. 

“The idea of doing the play was to bring it to smaller communities in the tradition of the old fit ups, which were the cornerstone of Irish storytelling in years gone by,” Robert explains. 

“We are just trying to bring great drama into great communities that maybe wouldn’t get plays coming to them.” 

He says he also wanted to give the cast the experience of performing in different venues in front of audiences they wouldn’t know and who wouldn’t know them rather than in one set venue. 

“The actors and backstage crew enjoyed meeting new people in the different communities and having fun.” 

And he points out they were hugely encouraged by the big audience turnouts and standing ovations they received throughout the tour. The Hinterland troupe have reformed again to  stage Playboy in the larger venue of the Strand Theatre in preparation for entering the RTE All-Ireland Drama Festival with rehearsals taking place in the Marian Hall, Owning; Rising Stars Variety Group  Dance Studio, Carrick Heritage Centre and  O'Ceallachain's Bar & Restaurant in Carrick-on-Suir and Alison Cronin’s Dance Studio in Clonmel since the start of the month.

Robert thanked the proprietors and groups behind these venues for facilitating their rehearsals  and also Carrick Heritage Centre for providing the space for   the re-imagining of the play’s set by  Martin Ellis, Eamon Faulkner, Vanessa Ronan and Electra Grant.   

A number of new cast members have joined the production as some of the original cast are unable to commit the time  that participating in the drama festival  will involve

They are Clonmel actors Saoirse Murphy and Jess O’Donovan who take on the roles of  Susan Brady and Honor Blake; Pat Quinn Bolger from Rathgormack who plays the Widow Quinn   and Jordan Freeman from Mullinahone, who plays Sara Tansey.

  Jordan previously played the female lead in The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical staged at Clonmel’s Kickham Barracks in 2021. 

Other new cast members are Enda O’Driscoll, who takes on the role of Shawn Keogh and Barry Comerford who joins the ensemble as farmer Jimmy Farrell. 

The cast is completed by  David Shee, who plays Michael James and  Dennis Barry, who plays Philly Cullen.  

Unusually for a small community theatre production, there is a group of traditional musicians providing live accompanying music during the three-act play. 

They are Libby Grant on concertina, Irene Joyce on mandolin, Al Power on guitar and bodhran and David Grant on tin whistle.

Also central  to the production are Padraig Babbington, who is in charge of props and transportation and stage manager Victoria Elliott.    The  capacity of the Strand Theatre auditorium is being reduced  from 400 seats to 170 to give a more intimate setting for actors and audience. 

It’s nevertheless quite an achievement for a community drama production like this to sell out 350 tickets over two performances in January.

Robert explains the purpose  of  reducing the theatre’s  capacity is  to create a theatre within a theatre effect   as this is a play that will be performed without microphones or amplification,

The Strand Theatre performances will give the Playboy cast the experience of performing in a larger venue before larger audiences similar to what they will  encounter in the All-Ireland Drama Festival.

 For the festival, the Hinterland troupe will perform at eight different venues around the country at weekends starting at the end of February and running throughout March.

 Productions that make it through these qualifying heats will progress to the national finals in Athlone between April 26 and May 6.  

Robert has happy memories of taking part in the festival in his youth with Carrick’s Brewery Lane Drama Group. 

He stresses that he is more interested in the Hinterland cast and crew enjoying the whole experience, like he did, rather than making theatre  a “competitive sport”. 

“Community theatre is an uplifting project; it gives people something to look forward to. 

“It’s not about competition, it’s about community spirit and the arts and the love of drama.” 

Robert hopes the Playboy of the Western World is just the first of many theatre productions  Hinterland will go onto stage.  

He has ambitions to  follow up by bringing a trilogy of plays from the Irish canon to the stage starting in small communities like last summer’s successful tour. 

“We will take it one step at a time,” he says.

Walter Dunphy in action on stage as Old Mahon in Playboy of the Western World that will be staged in the Strand Theatre in Carrick-on-Suir this Friday and Saturday night.