Cavan festival celebrates 80 years of drama

When a drama festival brings theatre lovers back year after year, you know it’s doing something right.

The curtain on the very first Cavan Drama Festival opened in the local townhall 80 years ago this spring; an incredible testament to the skill and dedication of the volunteers at its heart who make it happen. However, this is the 78 festival as those other dramas of Foot and Mouth Disease and Covid stymied two years from running.

“We will coincide the big celebrations for the eighty years when we actually hit 80 festivals, and that will be in 2028,” explained chairperson Rachael Cullivan.

They have a “little bit of funding” to shoot what Rachael describes as a mini-documentary, and award winning filmmaker Alan Bradley has been involved in the project. She notes there will be “a bit more action happening than usual”.

“We will be taking the opportunity during the festival to get more shots.

There’s a huge amount back stage that goes on, it’s an entirely voluntary committee that works away during the year - it’s like the feet of the swan paddling away under water - you just see the finished gliding product, you don’t necessarily see the blood sweat and tears underneath, and head scratching that goes on.”

Wary of complacency the Drama Festival committee approach each new season with a renewed determination to book another wonderful selection of drama groups to bring to the stage over eight nights from March 7-14.

Rachael Cullivan is excited by the feast of drama that lies in wait.

“Carlow, Galway, Fermanagh, Wexford, Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Monaghan - they come from all over.

“The plays are great and we have a great mix of the traditional favourites - ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ and ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ - plays that people will know, local interest with ‘From Under The Bed’ by Seamus O’Rourke on the Sunday night - that is a really good one. And then more modern plays - ‘Sylvia’ and ‘Gut’ [over 16s only].

“For people who are interested in the great Irish writers, ‘The Dead’ is an adaptation of James Joyce’s short story, and for people who love Joyce, that’s going to be really interesting.”

Another point of interest is the price.

“Try booking a play in the Gate or the Abbey, €20 a night is very good value for the standard of playing, the lovely comfort of the nice Townhall, but the season ticket for a €100 is incredible - you can get eight plays for €100 if you can make it to them all. It’s phenomenal value.” The 2026 programme favours the Confined Section over the Open, with five of the eight plays competing in the former.

“There is probably a smaller number of Open groups this year,” muses Rachael, “and a couple of the groups that would usually come to us from the open section aren’t out on the circuit this year. I wouldn’t let that put anybody off as there’s very little between the Confined and the Open sections now. The guys in the Open have all won All-Irelands and everybody else isn’t far behind, so I would be very confident it will all be of a fantastic standard.”

Running the rule over the drama is adjudicator Alan Haslett, who comes with almost 50 years of theatre experience.

“I always encourage audiences to take advantage of that,” says Rachael. “When you listen to an adjudicator explain what works and what doesn’t work in a play, and how things could be improved, it really does help you enjoy both what you’ve just seen and also what you watch in the future.”

Rachael is pleased to have Cavan Arts Officer Karina Charles open the festival on Saturday, February 7.

“We’re delighted to have the support of the Art Office and they’ve always been great friends of the festival. Karina was obviously involved in amateur drama with Carriallen in the past, so she will be speaking from experience.”

Rachael was also eager to thank the audience and sponsors, without who there would be no festival.

“Our patrons are fabulous for giving us moral and financial support. The local businesses are brilliant - so many of them are sponsoring nights, but we are especially delighted in the lead in to our 80th celebration that we have a major sponsor - the Cavan Crystal Hotel. It gives us that extra bit of confidence.”