Season 58 Play 6 – Dolly West’s Kitchen by Frank McGuiness
Directed by
Cast
Rima West her Mother – Freda Denbigh
Esther Horgan her Sister – Siobhan Smith
Justin West her Brother – Jordan Crossley
Ned Horgan Esther’s hushand – David Elliott
Anna Owens the Wests’ maid – Danielle Cooper
Alec Redding a British army officer – Paul Dargan
Marco Delavicario an American soldier – Paul Glover
Jamie O’Brien an American soldier and Marco’s cousin – Bryan Bounds
Synopsis
As the Second World War rages in Europe, Donegal is the setting for another war closer to home. In Dolly West’s kitchen the family has its own conflicts to face as their lives are transformed with the arrival of allied troops across the border in Derry. War with its tragedies and survivals, changes everything.
Directors Notes
Frank McGuinness, born in 1953, is undoubtedly the most daring and productive Irish playwright for many years. He is part of an astonishing crop of Irish writers and BLT has taken advantage of their work in recent years. Actors have had to learn different Irish accents, from Dublin to the west coast as far as Co. Donegal where this play is set, bordering Northern Ireland. My recent productions have included Irish plays by Brian Friel and Martin McDonagh and BLT has already seen a previous play by Frank McGuinness,
‘Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me’. Our play is set in Buncrana where the author was born so geographical references are correct. Whilst on holiday I met a Belfast family who regularly take their children and grandchildren to play on the beach mentioned in the play. The adults play golf on the links. There are two difficulties in watching this play which is set in World War 2 between 1943 and late 1945; firstly it was written for an Irish audience who have Ireland’s troubled history and religion in their blood – we do not – and secondly most of us will not have lived through the war and those who fought in it are now old and not usually willing to talk about it. I was a small boy then, although I remember D-Day in 1944; We invaded on my birthday, we won and I was triumphant. This production is dedicated to one of my uncles, a conscientious objector and a member of the Pioneer Corps. He landed in France on D-Day and for a year his work was to tidy up corpses, to identify them, to put the body pieces together. He came back to me apparently the same person, but it was only years later that my aunt told me how devastating the effect of his experience was upon him. When you have seen this wonderful play you will know what I am talking about
