Dunmore group to stage Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
Frank McGuinness’s three-hander, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, will be performed at An Taibhdhearc Theatre this Saturday night, by the award-winning Dunmore Amateur Dramatic Society (DADS).
The play, focusing on the experiences of an Irishman, and American and an Englishman who are being held hostage in Lebanon, was first produced in the early 1990s, when it was dedicated to Belfast man Brian Keenan, who had been kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi’ite militiamen in Beirut in 1986 and held captive for four and a half years. Fellow hostages in Lebanon included Englishman John McCarthy and American Terry Anderson.
This play is not their story, but it is inspired by events surrounding them, and in light of the current crisis in the Middle East and surrounding countries, it has a new resonance for audiences.
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me explores the coping mechanisms of the three hostages, Adam, Edward and Michael, who are locked up together in a basement cell in the Middle East. They invent games, they tell stories, they joke, and they discuss their beliefs as they wonder what lies in store.
The DADS production is directed by Philip MacDonnell, a Dunmore resident whose day job is in Tuam Post Office. Originally from Dublin he joined the Dunmore Amateur Dramatic Society in 2002 for a walk-on role. He was bitten by the acting bug and since then he has performed on stage regularly, including taking on the role of Gar Public in Philadelphia, Here I Come! Oliver in Da and the Stranger in A Thief of Christmas. He has also worked behind the scenes with the group, learning his craft in both sound and lighting. So, although this is his first time taking the reins for a production, all that experience has stood him in good stead.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.