Accent on local for ‘Wake of Yer Man’

Twenty-four hours after they went on sale, 200 of the 250 tickets for the opening night in Jersey of the Westmeath play The Wake of Yer Man, the work of Rochfortbridge writer Yvonne Heavey, had already been sold.

“I’m thrilled,” Yvonne told the Westmeath Examiner, revealing that significant casting decisions have been made by Mullingar man Daniel Egerton, director of the production.

“Daniel felt the leading characters must be portrayed with authentic Westmeath voices, and so he has begun holding auditions in Mullingar to cast three local actors for the lead roles,” said Yvonne.

Daniel, who travelled to Jersey to meet Yvonne and the cast, has been reshuffling the roles to ensure the important parts are performed with genuine Westmeath accents – which chimes with Yvonne’s own vision. It has always been a priority for her that the accents heard by audiences are as true as possible to those surrounding her as she grew up in Derrygreenagh Park, the location that inspired much of her original anthology, also titled The Wake of Yer Man, on which the play is based.

Yvonne said the decision to cast three Mullingar women in the main roles stemmed from Daniel’s belief that, for the sake of authenticity, the story – steeped in Westmeath culture, phrases, and humour – needed performers who understood it instinctively.

Once the three lead roles are cast, work will begin in earnest in preparation for the March 17 opening night in Jersey. The play is then due to come to Mullingar in May 2026 for a two-night run.

According to Yvonne, interest in the Derrygreenagh storyline has taken off in the Channel Islands, as the rapid sale of tickets demonstrates.

“There’s a real fascination over here with the Derrygreenagh houses and the whole Bord na Móna history,” she said.

“People are going online, reading about it, talking about it – they’re obsessed.”

She said she is thrilled that Daniel Egerton has come on board as director. “He doesn’t realise how talented he is,” Yvonne said, recalling how he stepped into a rehearsal to demonstrate a scene and “blew everyone out of the water”.

She added that his instinctive understanding of the themes of the play – shaped by Irish family dynamics, rural 1990s experiences, and the resilience of Irish mothers – made him the right person to bring Westmeath to Jersey. “He’s very close to his mother and his sisters. He really understands Irish women,” she said.

The production team are running an outreach programme for Jersey drama students, who will sit in on rehearsals during Egerton’s visits.

A similar initiative is planned for Mullingar early next year.