Oisin Players' new drama in Killeshin is a rollicking success!
Máire and Danielle O'Driscoll, Matthew Hosey, Amelia Chodorska, Hannah Keogh and Lisa McHugh at the show Photos: Paul Curran
AMATEUR theatre group Oisin Players saw more than 700 people attend their five-night run of the play More Wine Darling by Hank Regan in the Glenside, Killeshin.
The group was first founded in the 1960s, but by the 1990s had all but disappeared. The show’s producer Annette Monaghan, along with other local drama enthusiasts, reformed the group in 2007 and have put on a play every year since.
Annette said that all the play’s performers are “local and completely amateur” and that the play had been in rehearsal for six weeks before being performed.
This year, the group struggled to choose a play, as 11 people wanted to be in the show and not that many plays are written for such a large cast. After the group read about ten plays, they decided on the comedy More Wine Darling by Co Waterford writer Hank Regan.
“It’s very funny, very Irish. It’s a total farce,” Annette said. “I think, in these times, everybody could do with a bit of a laugh. We’ve had great fun putting it together.” Every year, once the group has made the money that it took to put on the show, they donate the rest and from ticket sales to charity.
“Over the years, we have given money to the GAA, the pipe band and cancer research,” Annette said.
