‘Wake’ uses fairytale to tackle timeless issue

The issue of violence against women is the underlying theme of Wake, from Galway’s No Ropes Theatre Company which was staged last week at the city’s Town Hall Theatre Studio.

It’s the story of Mara, a young woman who has disappeared, and the efforts by her older sister Caitríona to make sense of what has happened as she wonders could Mara’s disappearance have been presented.

Wake was written by local writer Deirdre Sullivan, whose retelling of traditional fairytales in the collection Tangleweed and Brine won the children’s Book Ireland Awards in 2018, and The Young Adult Book of the Year Award at the Irish Book Awards 2017.

Wake, too, is a fairytale, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s early 19th century story about a mermaid who is willing to sacrifice her life and identity for a handsome prince.

In the No Ropes, version, directed by the company’s Artistic Director, Mairéad Folan, the action is set in Galway. Two sisters, different in temperament but very close, grow up in a fishing community. Their father is a fisherman, their mother died too young.

However, Mara (Orla Ní Thiobraide) changed completely after beginning a relationship with older man, withdrawing from her sister and father. Caitríona (Tara Breathnach) did her best to keep the communication channels open, but Mara had become evasive and unreliable.

Now, she’s gone and Catríona is bereft. But she’s also angry – at Mara and herself. Angry that she didn’t do enough to help her sister and angry at Mara for allowing this man to control and manipulate her.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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