One Night at Glenlough – Ballybofey

One Night at Glenlough is a new play by Shaun Byrne which premieres in the Balor Arts Centre, as part of the Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival.

The plot deals with the summer acclaimed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas spent in Donegal in 1935, in the remote coastal region of Glenlough, near Glencolmcille.

Sent there on a retreat by his publisher after the overnight success of his first collection, this dark comedy follows Thomas’s attempts to both dry out and compose new work, both of which are met with mixed results.

Visited in his remote cottage hideaway by Liam the Post, he finds himself battling demons real and imagined in this ‘virtual poteen republic’, as Thomas described his new home in a letter to a friend.

Featuring acclaimed Ballybofey actor Frankie McCafferty as Liam and rising star Aidan Moriarty as Dylan Thomas with visionary direction by Charlie Bonner, this promises to be one not to be missed.

Frankie McCafferty is one of Donegal’s finest actors. His distinguished career has seen him work with almost every major Irish theatre company including The Abbey Theatre (The Plough and The Stars), Druid (The Black Pig’s Dyke) and The Lyric, Belfast (Conversations On A Homecoming, Molly Sweeney, Waiting for Godot, The Playboy of the Western World and Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme)

His Film and TV roles include Philomena, Angela’s Ashes, In The Name Of The Father Ballykissangel, Vikings, Ripper Street, Derry Girls and, most recently, Blue Lights.

Aidan Moriarty has earned many plaudits in a relatively short acting career to-date. Donegal audiences will have seen him in The Abbey Theatre / Lyric Theatre, Belfast co-production of Brian Friel’s Translations, as well as in An Grianán Theatre’s production of Friel’s The Enemy Within, part of the Colmcille 1500 celebrations in 2021.

Charlie Bonner is a well-known actor and director from Ballybofey. He has performed in all of the leading theatres in Ireland including the Abbey Theatre (Philadelphia, Here I Come !, Macbeth) and The Lyric Belfast (Dancing At Lughnasa, The Playboy of The Western World).

For last year’s festival, Charlie directed the hugely successful Civil War play, Drumboe ( written by Kieran Kelly), which sold out its four night run at the Balor Arts Centre.

Shaun Byrne is an actor and playwright from Ballybofey, whose work has enjoyed tremendous success on the festival circuit.

Earlier this year, Ballyshannon Drama Society won their way to the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival in Athlone with his play, Margaret, on the life and times of Margaret Thatcher, with Best Actress Award-winning Rachel O’Connor in the title role.

The production of One Night at Glenlough is co-funded by Creative Ireland/Éire Ildánach.