Drama commemorating Brinsley MacNamara

A once-off and free public event commemorating Westmeath author and dramatist, Brinsley MacNamara, will take place in Athlone Library on Culture Night on Friday at 5.30pm. The centrepiece of the event will be a rehearsed-reading of MacNamara’s 1926 hilarious match making play, 'Look at the Heffernans!'.

(A rehearsed reading is a live performance short of a full performance, where actors in character read and deliver the script aloud, without costumes or staging and with little physical movement.)

Like his seminal work, ‘The Valley of the Squinting Windows’, which MacNamara wrote about his hometown of Delvin during the first decades of the 20th century, 'Look at the Heffernans!’ is set in the hinterland of another fictional midland’s town, with the thinly-veiled name of Aarboy. The plot follows the business and matrimonial fortunes of the Heffernans, a well-off, and comfortable family.

Acclaimed director Michael Scott has adapted and condensed the play for this event. Scott has gathered a cast of professional actors , including John Olohan, Barry John Kinsella and Billie Traynor, and accomplished local actors associated with Mullingar Centre for the Performing Arts and City Theatre Dublin. Early comers to the event will have the opportunity view an extract from an upcoming documentary on Brinsley MacNamara by film-maker, Oliver Fallen of Bailey and Blake Productions. The evening will conclude with a panel discussion and audience Q&A with Michael Scott, director and Mary Shine Thompson, author and literary historian, chaired by Claire Keogh of Westmeath Library Service.

This is a free Culture Night event, but as seating is strictly limited. Booking information at https://westmeathculture.ie/library-blog/culture-night-in-athlone-library-brinsley-macnamara/ This event is presented by Mullingar Centre for the Performing Arts and City Theatre Dublin in association with Westmeath Libraries and funded by the Commemorations Initiative from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport with support from Westmeath County Council.

Doors open at 5.30pm with reading scheduled to commence at 6pm sharp.