Blackwater Valley Fit-Ups under way

By the time you read this, ‘The Empty Nest’, the first of four great plays in this year’s Blackwater Valley Fit-Up Festival, will have kicked off in Bartlemy Hall before moving on to Inch Community Hall (this Thursday), Ballynoe (Friday), Kill Community Hall (Saturday) and Fermoy’s Palace Theatre on Sunday night.

Seamus O’Rourke and Joan Sheehy feature in ‘The Empty Nest’. Written by Oisín Flores Sweeny, we meet Tony and Sheila who are watching television. Their children are grown and their grandchildren are invading their lives. They haven’t had sex forever and all that’s on the television is sex.

Oisín Flores Sweeny’s first play is a hilarious piece of theatre that encompasses the way many Irish couples live today and should not be missed.

And then, next week, Seamus O’Rourke will perform his self-penned piece ‘The Ballad Of Mossy Flood’. If you’ve seen O’Rourke perform before, you’ll agree that you are in for a real treat.

Mossy Flood has a knack of going the long way around a story and in so doing, he makes us laugh and examine ourselves in a way we haven’t done before. He might be an unsociable odd-ball with a big thick head, but his wrestle with the everyday is pure gold. He will always land on his feet or at least somewhere near his feet… because he is Mossy Flood… and he’s from Longford. . ‘The Ballad of Mossy Flood’ might just save humanity from self-destruction.

Please note a change to the Saturday night venue for Week 2 when they group will visit The Mall Arts Centre in Youghal.

Third on the programme will be the one and only Pat Kinnevane who returns with his dynamic play ‘King’ and on the final week, Michael Patric will bring us his historic piece, ‘Sean Moylan – Irish Revolutionary’.

See full details on the advert elsewhere on this issue. Tickets available at the door each night and curtain up is at 8pm sharp.

The Blackwater Valley Theatre Fit-Up Theatre is brought to us by Blood In The Alley Theatre Company under the direction of Geoff Gould and in association with Cork County Council and The Arts Council.