At the launch of The Brian Friel Theatre season, we were spoilt for choice with the best of what you could expect for the rest of the year. From the intriguing plays ‘Beckett’s Shorts’ and ‘The Libertine’, the immense ‘Crooked’ to the absurdly comic ‘Rhinoceros’, amongst them all one performance stood alone in the crowd, ‘The Donahue Sisters’. The director of the play, Ciara McGuigan, talked to The Gown about the project.

BRIAN SWANN

Of all the plays, we were eager to discover what it was about ‘The Donahue Sisters’ that was so attractive.

 “The Donahue Sisters is a very dark play with many different aspects such as success, the Irish family, physiological, physical and sexual abuse that can all be played around with. The three adult women had so clearly been affected by the ghosts of their childhood, I wanted to look into this and see how I could develop this more,” McGuigan said.

With the subject decided upon, and whittled down to a pure state of perfection, the next thing to be considered is setting. In theatre, setting is everything; it can make or break a performance and to make ‘The Donahue Sisters” site-specific seemed inextricably important to an honest portrayal of the play.

 “On my initial reading of the script I could see the piece being performed in no other venue than the Donahue family home. The claustrophobic conditions of the playroom in the family’s attic lent itself perfectly to the setting of the play,” she explained.

Working in the realm of site-specific theatre can be tricky, working with a limited number of plays it can be hit or miss, but when it’s a hit it has its rewards.

“Site specific work was a challenge, the team pulled together in the most professional manner. The rewards definitely outweighed the challenges,” McGuigan gushed.

The audience have been promised “a challenging, emotive piece of theatre”, and Ciara McGuigan assured The Gown, “The performance space will be transformed into the childhood playroom of the girls. Each room in the house was furnished and lived in, reminding the audience that they were not going to the theatre to see a show, instead they were intruding on the family who lived in the house. The experience of walking through the family home added depth to the performance.”

With such a uniquely moving play brought to new life in the hands of an ambitious and visionary first time director, ‘The Donahue Sisters’ is truly moving.

“As a director, a clear vision is paramount and I am privileged to have worked with a great team who went above and beyond their jurisdiction to make ‘The Donahue Sisters’ something I am very proud to have directed,” she said.