Irish-language version of Vincent Woods’ play at An Taibhdhearc
A new, Irish-language version of Vincent Woods’ play, Song of the Yellow Bittern, will open at the city’s An Taibhdhearc Theatre next Wednesday, February 5, and will run until Sunday, February 15.
Amhrán an Bhonnáin Bhuí is being directed by Maelíosa Stafford, who also directed the original, English-language version when it premiered at Druid Theatre in 1994.
The translation is by Tomás de Bhaldraithe and Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde and the music is by Brendan O’Regan, a stalwart of the Irish music scene for nearly four decades.
The cast includes well-known actors Lochlann Ó Mearain, Tara Breathnach, Diarmuid de Faoite, Orlaith Ní Chearra, Eoin Ó Dubhghaill, Eoin Geoghegan and Eoin Mac Diarmada who are being joined by multi-instrumentalist Floriane Blancke and accordionist Conor Connolly, TG4’s Young Musician of the Year in 2019.
A love story and a ghost story, Song of the Yellow Bittern draws on a true event from 1828 – a famous paternity lawsuit taken by a Protestant woman against a Catholic priest. The saga of this case reverberates and unravels through time, linking events and people over seven generations in a rural community in Leitrim, the playwright’s home county.
When Song of the Yellow Bittern was first staged at Druid in 1994, the then Professor of History at NUIG, Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, wrote, “Woods has written a powerful play, the central concerns of which must resonate with particular force in contemporary Ireland”.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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