Yvonne Heavey brings Jersey stage production home to Westmeath

The people of Mullingar will have the opportunity to help bring to fruition the May 2026 staging of a new play set in Westmeath, and performed by a company from Jersey.

Rochfortbridge-born writer, Yvonne Heavey, is currently working with the cast in Jersey of ‘The Wake of Yer Man’, inspired by her childhood in Derrygreenagh Park – but she is thrilled now to have reached agreement with Mullingar Arts Centre to have the play performed there after its run in Jersey.

Shifting a production from an island in the English channel to a town in the Irish midlands is a not inconsiderable feat – and while she has been trying to source sponsorship for the play, Yvonne hopes that some local people may be willing to host cast members in their homes for the few nights of the play’s Irish run.

“It’d be amazing if people hosted. It would be incredible,” says Yvonne, saying that it would be enriching for the actors – but would also be fun for the host families.

The Wake of Yer Man is the stage version of the book of short stories of the same name which Yvonne launched last year, featuring a range of affectionate tales of her own 1990s childhood and teenage years as one of nine siblings growing up in Derrygreenagh, bringing in memories of Rochfortbridge generally, and Mullingar.

Yvonne was prompted to write the collection after one of her stories – the one called The Wake of Yer Man – won the prestigious short story award at the Jersey Festival of Words. That pre-empted this year’s honour: a commission by the Jersey Art House to turn the work into a play.

Yvonne is really excited to be able to bring ‘The Wake of Yer Man’ back to where it all started: “Mullingar Arts Centre have been incredible, and we are to perform there on May 1 and 2 of next year,” she says. She is also thrilled that Sean Lynch, director of the arts centre, has already solved one of her big headaches: the conundrum of where to find a dialogue coach, who could help train the cast to speak with Westmeath accents. He came up with the name of Westmeath actor and drama teacher, Daniel Egerton.

“So Daniel is coming over the first week in January, and he’s going to be working with each cast member on dialogue, starting over Zoom,” says Yvonne, who still hasn’t lost her own brogue despite almost a quarter of a century living in Jersey, where she is married to James Gleeson, and is the mother of a young son.

Sean is also going to liaise with the set designer in Jersey, Rob Ritchie of Stage 2 Productions, so that the set in Mullingar will be more or less the same as that with which the cast are going to become familiar in Jersey.

The play is to open in Jersey on March 17, and will also be staged on March 19 and 20, and there are even tentative talks about taking it to a theatre interested in hosting a run in London.

Currently working on the edits for the play, Yvonne is bemused by the fact that the actors were so amazed to realise the stories were based on real people, in a real place – so they’ve been doing their own research to find out more about Derrygreenagh.