Tipperary based actor to feature in stories about women living during the Great Famine

New folk musical touring Ireland features Tipperary-based actor Mary Claire Ryan and focuses on the forgotten stories of women living through the Great Irish Famine

Roscommon-based Enchanted Croi Theatre has recently embarked on a 14-venue Irish tour of 'In the Midst of Plenty,' a new folk musical set in the time of the Great Irish Famine and set against the backdrop of the plot to assassinate Denis Mahon, the landlord of the Strokestown estate in County Roscommon. The show will tour to the Simon Ryan Theatre at Tipperary Excel on July 8. 

Written by California-based singer-songwriter Amy Day and directed by Anne-Marie O'Sullivan of Enchanted Croi Theatre, the piece amplifies the seldom-told stories of impoverished women and their families who endured during the time of the Great Irish Famine. 

The piece features an entirely original acoustic folk score, a large cast of actors and vocalists, and a full folk band on stage.

“Having been involved with the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park for over four decades, I have seen many Famine-related performances of varying standards, and this is singularly the best Famine-related piece I have ever seen,” said Caroilin Callery, director of the National Famine Way, a major sponsor of the show.

The show features Tipperary native Mary Claire Ryan. 

The show’s writer was inspired to create the piece in 2019 after visiting the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park while on a day off from teaching a course at the University of Galway.

“I had been wanting for some time to turn my focus to writing a full-length folk musical along the lines of Once or Come From Away,” Amy explained. “I tried to open myself up to finding the right story, something I really believed in. As I experienced the way in which Strokestown presented Irish Famine history at the hyper-local level, I was deeply moved by the timelessness and universality of what that story has to teach the world. I was drawn to the natural drama inherent in the story of the assassination of the landlord there. I knew I had to learn more.”

Amy used the isolation of the pandemic years to focus on this writing project, and in two years she developed the script and score for ‘In the Midst of Plenty.’ She did so under the guidance of Maynooth-based Famine historian Dr Ciaran Reilly, who presented ways in which to humanise the event of global importance by focusing on the experiences of Irish families.

“The landlord’s story has been told so many times,” explained Amy. “The right way to write this piece was to learn about the lives of women who did not have access to the tools required in order to record their stories and experiences.  During the pandemic in particular, I was very focused on what it must have been like for a mother to live through the years of the Great Hunger, perceiving her community as a threat to her own family's survival.”

One of the ways in which the piece amplifies the stories of cottier women is with the song ‘Your Mercy,’ which the production recently released as a studio single featuring Grainne Hunt. The song sets to music an original Famine-era petition written from a tenant to her landlord in 1848. On stage, the scene includes the transcription of the original petition onto the character's shawl. 

As the pandemic wound down, Amy connected with Anne-Marie O’Sullivan, founder and director of Strokestown-based Enchanted Croi Theatre. Anne-Marie’s company, Enchanted Croi Theatre, was awarded funding from the Roscommon County Council to develop ‘In the Midst of Plenty,’ which she brought from page to stage in Strokestown and then in the Roscommon Arts Centre in 2022, selling out all performances and garnering rave reviews.

Mary Claire Ryan plays the role of Mary Duffy, a young mother and widow on the Strokestown estate who turns to her community in her time of struggle.

Mary Claire grew up in the heart of Carnahalla, in the parish of Doon (Limerick) and Cappawhite (Tipperary). She has always been a singer and played piano from an early age, and she got her first taste for the stage in Transition Year, when she took part in All Ireland Drama Finals. She credits her passion for acting to her teacher Aidan O’Donovan, who believed in his thespian class and brought them to Briars Gate in Macroom that year.

Mary Claire went on to UCC, where she earned her BA in Music & Irish, and where she took part in the Drama & Musical Society. She traveled and worked abroad, performing in Dubai in a production of ‘Gatsby, the Immersive Experience’ on the QEII ship, where she served as musical director, actor, singer, and dancer. She trained in the Gaiety School of Music’s advanced theatre performance program and then went on to train with David Scott.

Since 2020, Mary Claire has worked on the Aran Islands as a Secondary School Music and Drama teacher. While there, she worked on The Banshees of Inisherin, working alongside Colin Farrell every day.

Of her role in ‘In the Midst of Plenty,’ Mary Claire says “it is a pleasure to perform alongside such accomplished actors and musicians. And to be doing it in my local theatre is an even greater feeling. I can't wait to get on the road to tour and see what each night of performance has to offer! We've an excellent team and this powerful piece is finally getting the recognition it deserves.”

Of her character, Mary Duffy, Mary Claire says “she gets to open to the show with the title song ‘In The Midst of Plenty’ and performs the most poignant part of the whole show, ‘Winds of Winter,’ which will forever have a place in my heart. Mary knows the journey she has to endure is not going to be an easy one. I love the challenge of having to reach that utmost high intensity, most emotional moment in the whole show.”

“It has been incredible to safeguard a story of such a precious community that lost so much, whilst bringing to light the stories of women whose names were not even listed in a landlord’s estate records,” explained Anne-Marie O’Sullivan, the show’s Artistic Director. Through an act of ‘imagining’ what was largely disappeared and silenced we have created a space for the muted women’s voices to be heard. The theatre piece exposes the complexities that led to such a mass tragedy whilst celebrating the inextinguishable bravery of the men who put their life on the line to create change. The production has weaved together such an array of creative, talented people. It has most definitely been one of the most inspiring and meaningful pieces of theatre that I have had the privilege to be a caretaker of to date, and we are delighted to be sharing this experience with audiences nationwide.”

The touring cast is led by Julie Sharkey (No Magic Pill) and includes Niall Brewster (Squinty, Galway Fringe), Conor O’Kane (HUME: Beyond Belief), Martin Gilligan (Ros na Rún), Bláthnaid Daly (An Triail), Áine O’Brien (Nationwide), Eoghan Burke (Playboy of the Western World), Anne-Marie O’Sullivan (Enchanted Croí Theatre), and Ruairí Nicholl (Spring Awakening). The live on-stage folk band includes renowned trad fiddler Neil FitzGibbon, acclaimed folk artist Gráinne Hunt (recently supporting Glen Hansard and Declan O’Rourke), Tracy Bruen, Jules Stewart, and Amy Day.

“We are honored to be able to take this show to communities across Ireland in 2023,” said Anne-Marie O’Sullivan. “Many people are surprised when they hear that we have developed a musical set during the Famine, but we have found that the use of music, abstraction, and symbolism allow audiences to deal with, and perhaps in some small way to heal, this deep ancestral trauma in new ways.”

As part of the tour, the cast is addressing and hearing from a number of historical societies across Ireland. Doing so is an important part of their development of the show, incorporating community perspectives on the subject matter into their depiction of these sensitive events.

The tour also includes Cavan, Longford, Galway, Mayo, Donegal, Derry, Roscommon, Carlow, Tipperary, and Dublin.

‘In the Midst of Plenty’ was developed with funding from the Roscommon County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Its 2023 tour is made possible by support from the National Famine Way, the Irish Heritage Trust, Creative Ireland, Roscommon County Council, Tipperary County Council, the Ireland Funds, and RTE Supporting the Arts. Tickets are available now by visiting www. inthemidstofplenty.com.