www.communityvoice.ie - Art news from Dublin 15

A welcome in the kitchen

“Madam , I am an American soldier. I am most emphatically not wearing lipstick. A little rouge, yes…”

The much-loved Coolmine Drama Circle bring Frank McGuinness’s “Dolly West’s Kitchen” to Draíocht for five nights this month. The play, which premiered in the Abbey Theatre in 1999, is a celebration of a close knit Irish family. It tells the story of an Irish matriarch, Rima West and her three children, Dolly, Esther and Justin, and is set in County Donegal close to the border with Ulster, during the Second World War.

At a time when Ireland is maintaining its neutrality in the war against Hitler, the already tense lives of this family are thrown into disarray when three very different men come on the scene, all soldiers stationed just over the border in Northern Ireland.

Alec is an English officer and former lover of Dolly. Marco and Jamie are American soldiers waiting to see action in Europe. One is handsome and heterosexual, the other an outrageous queen, yet all are welcome into the kitchen of the West household. By the end of the play, everyone's life has been changed irreversibly.

“The play is very layered with many themes being examined, from nationalism to religion,” explained director Barry Cullen. “It is very funny and at the same time very sad. Even while we have been working on it, we have been discovering a lot of little nuances in it that weren’t obviously apparent on first reading. I’m sure that audiences will find the play fascinating on many different levels.”

Barry himself appeared in CDC’s last two productions, the farces, “Don’t Dress for Dinner” and “There’s a Burglar in my Bed.” So how does doing a multi-layered piece compare to a riotous farce?

“We are certainly finding it a lot more challenging!” he says. “With a farce, you know precisely what you have to do – it is more mechanical. Whether it is an action farce or a farce of language, the actors really only have to master lines and stage directions to pull it off.

“This play is a lot more subtle and much harder to do successfully. There is more acting in it to convey the nuances and unsaid thoughts.”

The group were going to do the play a few years ago but amazingly they were unable to find an actor willing to play the gay character! “It certainly is a challenging role for a male actor and definitely one to add to the CV!” says Barry. “Thankfully we have had more success this time around and the role has been filled.”

Coolmine Drama Circle has its roots in an adult drama class urged on by Sean O’ Beachain, given by Dick Wafer and attended by Oliver Beirne and twenty-nine ladies! All this happened in 1974 culminating in their first show ‘The Country Boy’, stage-managed by Tony Proudfoot, appearing on wooden pallets in the library in Coolmine Community School!

Since then the group has presented well over 30 full length plays, 18 one act plays and it has been the backbone of Coolmine Pantomimes going back to 1976. As a competitive group they have won national and indeed international awards over the years for a variety of plays, including ‘Juno and the Paycock’, Abigail’s Party’, ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’, ‘Da’, ‘The Plough and the Stars’, ‘Kevin’s Bed’ and 'Death of a Salesman.'

Coolmine Drama Circle bring Frank McGuinness’s “Dolly West’s Kitchen” to Draíocht Studio each evening at 8.15pm from Tuesday 20th to Saturday 24th May.

Tickets are €15 / €12.

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