Weekend of drama in store as one act festival returns

Festival has been on hold for the last two years

Cavan One Act Drama Festival will see nine troupes from the four corners of Ireland stage shows with a view to making it to the All Ireland One Act finals in Ennis in December.

The Cavan One Act Festival has amateur theatre companies battling for points in both confined and open sections. The One Act Drama Festival is a wonderful opportunity to experience a wide variety of petite plays, three each night, over the three nights in the Townhall in Cavan Town. Because of Covid restrictions and the refurbishment of the venue this is the first time Townhall has hosted the event since 2017.

The festival itself has been on hold for the last two years. The obvious question to put to the chair is: how do you approach putting together a programme for a One Act Festival in 2021: “With great fear and trepidation,” Rachel Cullivan laughs her reply.

Over the past couple of months audiences have been trickling back to theatres. Actors starved of attention have given astonishing performances to audiences equally famished for shows.

Rachel is conscious of the logistical challenges ahead of her team. “Staging a one act festival in the normal run of things is a complete mathematical improbability. It's an amazing thing that it manages to take place. There are so many permutations and combinations. There are so many possibilities. Now we have the possibility that someone who's a lighting person, a rigger, an actor, a director, a festival committee member or a venue staff member will be a close contact or have Covid and we have to prepare for the outcome of that.”

Adjudicating this year's festival is writer, director and actor Gerry Stembridge. Gerry is a familiar name to those who enjoyed the political satire 'Scrap Saturday' in the late '80s/early '90s. Gerry's film credits include screenwriter for Ordinary Decent Criminal and director of Black Day at Black Rock. He performed in the Cavan Drama Festival in the 1980s with the Temple Players, in a production that went on to win in the All Ireland Final.

“When we first invited him to adjudicate his comment was: 'It would be lovely to be back on the boards in the Townhall again,' but the renovations started in the Townhall. We then had to have the venue changed to Ballinagh where he adjudicated the full length festival. We invited him back to adjudicate the following year. That was when Covid hit. That got cancelled, so this is his third time, so we are hoping it will be third time lucky.”

Rachel says Gerry's role is as much for the audience as the actors: “He's a marvellous adjudicator. For the people on stage it's competition, but the main ethos is participation. It's not an adversarial competition. It is very much about the love of drama. Three short plays each night means everyone in the audience will find something they like.

“If you don't know a lot about drama, but listen to Gerry's very short, nuanced adjudications you get to understand why you like some plays, but not others. Or why it's easier to stage one play over another. It's like studying poetry for your Leaving Cert, you may not like it to start, but when you learn a bit about it you enjoy it more.”

With three plays each night there is a wide geographical spread.: “We have representation from Antrim, Wexford, Leitrim, Cavan, Offaly, Clare, Meath and Longford. It's literally the four corners, North and South.”