Play that won top RTƒ award for Galway Theatre Festival

It won the PJ O’Connor radio award for drama earlier this year on RTÉ Radio 1 and now Tara McKevitt’s play, Grenades is one its way to Nuns Island Theatre as part of the Galway Theatre Festival.

This drama explores the impact of violence on a family, both in the immediate and the long term – and while it’s sad, it has very funny moments according to actress Emma O’Grady who takes on the role of Nuala in this one-woman drama.

Grenades opens in 1989 when Nuala is 19 and in prison. She reverts to her childhood self as she begins telling of an incident that occurred when she was nine and the impact it had on her life since.

It was Tara’s ability to capture a child’s voice that helped her win the PJ O’Connor award, according to Emma of Mephisto Theatre Company which is presenting this production of Grenades.

“She has a beautiful way of crafting sentences – they come from the heart of the character and nothing is ever obvious. It’s not sentimental or manipulative, it’s human.”

Tara is from Moville in Donegal, close to the Derry border but despite her closeness to Northern Ireland, she didn’t set out to write a play about the Troubles.

“I wanted to write in a young person’s voice and so I felt it was best to reference my own childhood – it could have been set in Glasgow or anywhere. I keep telling people it’s not a Troubles play and then they ask the title and I say ‘Grenades’!”

After school in Donegal Tara studied for a degree UCD, then did a post-grad in journalism in 1993 after which she got a job with BBC Scotland working on kids’ programmes in a technical capacity. But after a few years she felt it was time for a break.

“My job in TV was getting less and less creative because everything was getting more and more technological – I was just pressing buttons! So I decided to take a career break and went back to university to study theatre. I decided to come to Galway because I was interested specifically in Irish writing, and I wanted to know more about Irish playwrights. And I also wanted to see what it was like living in Ireland.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.