Brideview Drama is known for delivering new, exciting, accessible and very popular productions to audiences, and this week is no exception with its premiere of Dermot Bolger’s ‘From These Green Heights’. Directed by Jack Aherne, this is the first time the play has been performed in Ireland on the amateur circuit and starts this weekend at Tallow Community Centre on Friday and Saturday nights, February 15 and 16 at 8.15pm.

As always, Brideview brings long-standing and new faces to its cast. ‘From These Green Heights’ is an exciting, emotional rollercoaster covering 40 years in the lives of families in the Ballymun Flats area of Dublin. All about why people moved there, how families come together to create real lives together and the effects of staying and going. The play welcomes new faces Ted O’Brien, Niamh MacAuley and Ellen Quirke to the group. John Baldwin, Denise O’Brien and Kate Murphy return, with Judy Burton as stage manager, design by Jan O’Sullivan, and sound and lighting by Emily Aherne and Tomás Roche.

Winner of many awards, ‘From These Green Heights’ is a great show for all the family. Full of compassion for those who live in social housing and the vibrant community they create there, it starts with middle-aged couple Dessie and Marie and their young daughter preparing to move out of the flats into new housing. With flashbacks to the 1960s (when young Dessie and his parents, Christy and Carmel, first moved to Ballymun), it jumps forward to how the family both grows and develops. The play is full of humour, especially about the government spin that this was the suburb of the future. We see how families can feel isolated and displaced when forced to move to somewhere new, yet eventually triumph and learn to love the home they build together.

Brideview Drama has been working hard to bring the production to the stage, with a very interesting set built by Peter Sealey, Liam Roche, Tomás Roche and Pat Aherne. The production is going on the festival circuit soon and will be toured around the country to eight festivals, so this weekend is its launch. Tickets are available on the door and, as always with Brideview shows, free refreshments are included.

The show will also travel to the First Fruits Arts Centre, Watergrasshill for two night on Friday and Saturday, February 22/23.