NEW RECORD SET IN ALL-IRELAND DRAMA

We did state in this column last week that when it comes to the All-Ireland finals in Athlone, trends don’t really count and to prove the point, Silken Thomas Players with 8 festival wins to their credit, had to settle for second place on Saturday night behind last year’s winners Kilmeen.

It has been a year of highs and lows for Kilmeen – the highs of being All-Ireland champions for the second year in succession and going for three-in-a-row when they started out to rehearse ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ towards the end of 2012; the terrible lows when they discovered the extent of their director, Tim Coffey’s illness which subsequently took him from them in March, and now, the highs, albeit with more than a hint of sadness, of being crowned champions for a third successive year.

The immediate response of this writer was to congratulate the adjudicator (Tony Rushforth) on having the strength of character to overturn the decision made by eight of his colleagues on the festival circuit and not give the win to Silken Thomas. But anyone who knows Kilmeen can vouch for the fact that when their festival run is over and they have qualified for Athlone, they go back into rehearsal/workshop mode and, more often than not, the show that hits the stage of the Dean Crowe Theatre is a ‘new’ show in every sense (‘A Crucial Year In The Life Of A Grocer’s Assistant’ which they also won with in 2009 would be further proof of that). That certainly was the Tim Coffey philosophy so we can assume the same principle applied in this case.

Once the first award was handed out on Saturday night (The Abbey Theatre Award) and Kilmeen were the recipients, it was clear they were going to be very near the top at the end of the night, more so considering The Abbey award is outside the adjudicator’s remit. That award invites the recipients to play on the famed Peacock stage at The Abbey which Kilmeen will have the honour of doing later this month.

With ‘Mercury Fur’ (Silken Thomas) going in as such red hot favourites, much of the talk during the week was who would take the runner-up spots. However, when Prosperous (‘The Goat or Who Is Silvia’) hit the stage on Tuesday night, it was evident that here was a group to be reckoned with and when the awards were announced on Saturday night, they came in in third place.

Ballyduff’s Brendan Dunlea received the ‘best supporting actor’ award for his role of Fr Jack in ‘Dancing At Lughnasa’ and the Ballyduff group also took ‘best lighting’ – well done to there!

As is customary, no sooner had the awards ceremony finished than the ‘post mortems’ began. The biggest talking point was the Silken Thomas Group’s solitary scholarship award. Many too found it strange that neither Kilmeen or Silken Thomas were awarded best director. This went to Pat Whelan of Bridge Drama and, while not wishing to take that from Pat, the fact that Bridge weren’t in the frame or weren’t given any other award, seemed strange to say the least.

Such incidentals however, were the least of Kilmeen’s worries and as they celebrated, their thoughts were clearly with their dear departed Tim Coffey, this win being the biggest tribute they could have paid him. Our congratulations to all in the Kilmeen group. Their passion and commitment to drama is second to none and an inspiration to us all. In winning three-in-a-row, they have now gone where no other group has gone in the 61 years of the All-Ireland competition.

The full list of winners is as follows: RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival Perpetual Trophy: Kilmeen Drama Group - 'The Playboy of the Western World'; Miniature Festival Trophy For Best Director: Pat Whelan - Bridge Drama - 'Out of Order': Best Actor (Miniature Festival Trophy) Robert Massey as Martin in 'The Goat or Who is Sylvia?' (Prosperous Dramatic Society); Best Actress (Miniature Festival Trophy) Maura Clancy as Hester Swaine in 'By the Bog of Cats' (Corofin Dramatic Society); Best Supporting Actor (Aileen Coughlan Memorial Award) Brendan Dunlea as Jack in 'Dancing at Lughnasa' (Ballyduff Drama Group); Best Supporting Actress (Joan Walsh Memorial Award) Nora Scannell as Widow Quinn in 'The Playboy of the Western World' (Kilmeen Drama Group); Best Stage Setting (Colm Kelly Memorial Award) Corofin Dramatic Society - 'By the Bog of Cats'; Best Lighting (ESB Award) Ballyduff Drama Group - 'Dancing at Lughnasa'; Best Stage Management (Brendan O'Brien Memorial Award) Corofin Dramatic Society - 'By the Bog of Cats’; John Butler Scholarship to DLI Summer School Dean Gorry - Silken Thomas Players; Drama League Of Ireland Summer School Scholarship Donal Ryan - Thurles Drama Group; Gormanstown Summer School Scholarship Sylvia Anderson - Bangor Drama Club; The Abbey Theatre Award Kilmeen Drama Group - 'The Playboy of the Western World'.

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