Arts centre mark 25th with revival of 'Valley of Squinting Windows'

The epic stage version of the Brinsley McNamara book, ‘The Valley of The Squinting Windows’, created and produced in Mullingar is being revived after Covid interrupted plans to bring it to the national stage.

Four years on from that exciting time, the Valley is to be staged in Mullingar again, and it is then to transfer to a big-name theatre in Dublin, said Seán Lynch, of Mullingar Arts Centre.

“The play was produced by Mullingar Arts Centre and we staged it in November 2019. It was scheduled to go into a Dublin theatre in 2020. But unfortunately the pandemic put paid to that.”

Dates for the new Dublin run are being finalised, but already the production is on the Mullingar Arts Centre calendar for November.

“This year is our 25th anniversary: the centre opened in November 1988. So, as November 2023 is our 25th anniversary, we’re aiming to have this as the centrepiece of our 25th birthday,” Seán said.

The adaptation of the book for the stage was undertaken by the multi-talented director Michael Scott: not alone did Scott script the work, but he also wrote the incidental music that features in the play, and directed the play as well.

When work began on reviving the production, the crew got a lucky break when beginning work on casting: “At the moment it looks like all the same professional cast are available,” reveals Seán. Given that there are 12 professional actor-parts involved, that is giving the show a great starting boost – not least because that group had really gelled.

“There seems to have been a camaraderie between them as this was the last big thing before the pandemic, and the camaraderie that was created between the cast means they’re quite close and they’re looking forward to it,” said Seán.

There is a local cast also involved, but four years on from the original production, there will be changes in that line-up: “Some of our ‘children’ who were children in 2019 are no longer children: four years in your life as a teenager from 12 to 16 is a big difference,” Seán pointed out, adding that between professionals and the local cast, there are more than 30 actors involved.

Counting the interval, the play lasts two hours and 20 minutes – and as Mullingar Arts Centre audiences have come to expect, there were some highly imaginative innovations devised when the play was first staged – most spectacularly, the use of live camera footage fed to on-stage LED screens to give audiences more than one view of the action: “It was able to bring alternative live views: it was a mix of cinematography with live theatre. It was fascinating,” said Sean.

“The reaction was phenomenal. It sold out here for the full week; it was well received and there were full houses for every show.

“We were honoured and delighted to have President Michael D Higgins at the première of it. And in fact, in an interview with Ray Dolan after the show, Michael D said it was one of the best pieces of Irish theatre he’s ever seen.”

Jadotville

Another major dramatic piece with which the arts centre team are currently engaged relates to The Siege of Jadotville. “We’re confident that this year we will have ready for scripting – and for production, we hope in 2024 – a dramatisation of Jadotville,” said Seán. “Michael [Scott] has been interviewing some local men that were involved in the siege. That will be another major drama piece.”