Mayo's Ray Leonard Players begin festival circuit with powerful drama Eclipsed
THE Ray Leonard Players from Claremorris will set out on their All-Ireland Drama Festival Circuit journey this week, with their first outing at Tubbercurry Drama Festival on Friday night, March 1.
This year, the award-winning team will stage Patricia Burke Brogan’s powerful drama, Eclipsed - a show that will have audiences laughing and crying in equal measure.
The group will continue to travel across the west and beyond throughout the month of March, participating in eight festivals along the way and hoping to secure a place in the All-Ireland Confined Finals.
Outlined by a present-day prologue and epilogue, the play is set in 1963 in a convent laundry at St. Paul's Home for Penitent Women in Killmacha, Ireland.
Eclipsed explores the poignant and sometimes humorous story of young pregnant, unwed mothers consigned to work as 'penitents' in church-run laundries. Supervised by nuns, these women were treated as virtual slaves and their infants were forcibly put up for adoption.
After seeing the goings on in the laundries as a young novice, playwright Patricia Burke Brogan decided to highlight the plight of these women, and Eclipsed was one of the first plays to tell the story of the Magdalene Laundries.
A stellar cast has been put in place for Eclipsed, with Brigit Murphy played by Sonja Stevens, Cathy McNamara played by Karen Hahessy, Nellie-Nora Langan by Andrea Silke, Mandy Prenderville by Una Monahan, Juliet Mannion by Gráinne Hahessy, Sister Virginia by Aishling Costello, Mother Victoria by Lisa Dowd-Hynes, and Rosa/Caroline played by Jenny Carney.
Alongside an excellent cast, the production team is headed up by Anne Fahey as director, with Billy Freeley on lighting, Dave Donnellan and Mary Murphy on sound, and Mary Esler as production coordinator. Again this year, John Fallon and Claremorris Men’s Shed have done an excellent job in set design and construction, while some of the stars of last year’s show - Tim Oates, Robert Holden and Alan Heneghan - have come on board as stage managers. Annie Moore is on costumes/props, with John Russell and Joseph Fahey as stage crew.
The Ray Leonard Players enjoyed great success in 2023, finishing fourth overall in the All-Ireland Full Length Confined Finals last April, and winning the All-Ireland Confined One-Act Drama Final in December.
Of course, The Ray Leonard Players was established to honour and perpetuate the memory of the late Ray Leonard, who was synonymous with drama across the west of Ireland throughout his life. Ray - who passed away in 2005 - was a director, producer and mentor who made an outstanding contribution to drama, musicals and stagecraft.
For the cast and crew of Eclipsed, March is shaping up to be a very busy month, beginning this Friday night, March 1, with a performance in Tubbercurry. Next stop is at Roscommon Drama Festival on Tuesday, 5th, with the Charleville Drama Festival on Saturday, 9th, Ballyshannon Drama Festival on Wednesday, 13th, and Claregalway Festival of Drama on Saturday, 16th. The Ray Leonard Players will be at home, performing at Claremorris Drama and Fringe Festival on Tuesda,y 19th, in Glenamaddy Theatre Festival on Tuesday, 26th, and will finish the circuit run in Scariff at Clare Drama Festival on Thursday, March 28th.