TADS to stage play in Tullamore DEW centre

Tullamore Amateur Dramatics Society is set to perform The Weir by Conor McPherson from next Wednesday (November 27) to Sunday in the Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre.

The Weir is set in a bar in a remote part of Ireland, where local lads are swapping spooky stories to impress a young woman who has recently moved from Dublin.

As the drink flows and the stories become increasingly frightening, it’s clear that Valerie has something on her mind. She has a tale to tell that’ll stop them all dead in their tracks.

Speaking about the play this week co-director Frank O’Brien said the play is “about communication, the fact that we all need to talk and we all have a story. It is good to tell our story and more importantly it is good to have someone to listen to our story,” he said. “That’s what the play is about.”

Though set in the 1990s, the play is set in a different time, a time without Facebook, Twitter, the smoking ban and the excesses of the Celtic Tiger. “It’s a time and place only 15 years ago which now feels like a long time ago,” Frank says.

Frank and his co-director Fionnula Corrigan have been involved with several plays, and are both looking forward to staging the play in the Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre.

“We will have a small intimate audience of 40 to 50 people,” Fionnula said. “We hope that within the setting of the restored heritage/visitor centre that we will be able to capture something of the atmosphere of a pub in Leitrim. We are very pleased to be there as it’s going to be quite different. It’s not going to be up on a stage or anything like that, so it has its own challenges in that way but we are hoping to create a very special night’s entertainment.”

Tickets can be booked for the show through Tullamore Dew Visitors Centre on 057 9325015.