Tag Archives: Ennis Players

AFTER a three year wait the Ennis Players are back in their new show ‘Glorious!’ by Peter Quilter, with rehearsals are well underway for this four night production. Directed by Bernie Harten, this play is based on the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins. Known as ‘the first lady of the sliding scale’, she warbled and screeched her way through the evening to an audience who mostly fell about with laughter. The play details Florence’s charity recitals, her bizarre recording sessions and an ultimate triumph at Carnegie Hall in this heart-warming comedy. This production features Maeve Plunkett as Florence Foster Jenkins, Jackie Scanlan as her suffering accompanist and John Lillis as St. Clair Byfield, her boyfriend. Patricia Clune plays the sharp-tongued truth-speaking Mrs. Verrinder Gedge, Geraldine Greene is Florence’s non-English speaking Mexican maid while Emer O’Flaherty plays Dorothy, Florence’s close friend. Ricky the loyal but sleeping poodle plays himself! Director Bernie Harten says she is, “thrilled to introduce Ennis audiences …

ENNIS Players are going on tour. Due to popular demand and having performed a completely sold out Supper-theatre run in The Old Ground Hotel, Ennis Players have announced a very special performance of ‘One-Acts on Tour’ in North Clare this weekend. The Players will perform two one-act plays in Hotel Doolin on Sunday, November 27. Speaking about the event, Mary Curley, Chairperson, said, “We in Ennis Players are delighted with the return of our very popular one-act season, as we have missed our audiences for the past two years, and look forward to welcoming the people of Clare and further afield to our performances.” The Players will take to the stage performing Elysium Nevada by Barry McKinley and Trapped by Barry Woods. Set in a retirement village in the sweltering Nevada desert, Elysium Nevada by Barry McKinley tells of two residents reflections on life, youth and how they got there. They are joined by a mysteriously silent woman whose presence adds …

ENNIS Players’ Annual Supper Theatre is back with three offerings to whet your theatrical appetite this November. Rehearsals are well underway for this four-night production, offering the finest of theatre and the finest of food in the surrounds of the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis. This year’s production will showcase performances of Elysium Nevada by Barry McKinley; Trapped, by Barry Woods and Tony Layton’s Where there’s a Will. Elysium Nevada is set in a retirement village in the sweltering Nevada desert. Two residents reflect on life, youth and how they got there. They are joined by a mysteriously silent woman whose presence adds an entirely new dimensions to the discussion. Directed by Saoirse Byrne, and features Hugh Gallagher as Bob, Conor Lynch as Mike and Amy McEnnis as Constance. Trapped sees Faye respond to a distressed phonecall from her best friend. They discover information that is both profound and life changing. A ten minute play about the unexpected parts that people …

A HUNDRED years ago the world came out of the darkness of World War One and Prohibition and celebrated in style in the Golden years of the 1920s. Now, as the entertainment industry and theatre in particular emerges from the confines of Covid, Ennis Players will celebrate the All-Ireland drama finals in the manner of the Roaring 20s. ‘Drama at Ennis’, the 2021 All-Ireland One Act finals will be staged in glór from December 3 to the 5. “The finals have been postponed from 2020 and now it is time to celebrate and embrace a wonderful weekend of amateur drama,” said Bernie Harten of the Ennis Players. “Participating groups and their supporters will be welcomed to glór, where they will play to an appreciative audience, deprived of theatre for too long,” she added. The All-Ireland One Act drama circuit is a 32-county competition with the top 11 groups in the country qualifying for the finals. Many amateur groups never get …

THE show must go on for the Ennis Players despite Covid-19. This would normally the time of year when the Players would be tidying up from another year of Supper Theatre Productions. This year has been a very different year but in the true spirit of the Ennis Players, and with adherence to social guidelines, they have come through with a play which will be available to view on their new and reworked website page this Thursday. “It was an opportunity that could not be ignored,” says the newly appointed Chairman of the Ennis Players Committee Paul Corey. “We wanted to do a little give back for all those who have supported us throughout the years. Obviously it was not without its challenges due mainly to the Covid crisis but it was a chance to simply say ‘Thank You’  to everyone from our patrons to those who gave us raffle prizes and our audience in general.” Mrs Sorken written by Christopher …

THE first live performance to be held in glór since lock-down began back in March has sold out, the Ennis venue has confirmed. The venue will be fully re-open from September 1, however ahead of this date a special live show will take place this Friday (August, 14) with The Albiez Trio, presented by Music Network with a line-up featuring Tóla Custy, Laoise Kelly and Cormac Breatnach. The very limited capacity gig will be the first in a range of events planned by glór for the coming months, with the venue adapting to meet the challenges of Covid-19. A spokesperson for glór told us they were delighted that this week’s live performance, with a very limited audience, has sold out. And they are looking forward to returning with a new season of events from September. “We have re-shaped our autumn programme to offer a range of experiences from theatre, to music, comedy and film and visual arts, presenting each experience in …

POPULAR local drama group Ennis Players are facing a potential crisis in the coming months, as they are set to be left without a premises. Explaining the situation, Arthur Forde, who first became involved with the Players in the late 1970s, said, “We’re sort of homeless at the moment. The property boom has meant that if a place is at all useful in a commercial way, it’s gone. “We’ve been in various places, various halls, various pieces of property around. We had a unit out in the Quin Road industrial estate, but that was always just a temporary stop-gap. As soon as it became needed, we were to be on our bike.” The group have been there for the last two years but are due to vacate the premises this October. Arthur says that, while the group would not be very particular, there are certain things that would be helpful. “It has to be reasonably high anyway. We need the …

Ennis Players celebrate the life of world-acclaimed playwright, Brian Friel, with a production of The Loves of Cass Maguire on its 50th anniversary. It is poignant that the Players are performing this play in the year of Brian Friel’s death and the Players believe they were the last amateur drama group in Ireland to receive a written license from Friel to perform the play, just two months before his passing. Glór Theatre – from Wednesday, next to Saturday, February 27 – will be the venue for the latest production of the award-winning Ennis Players. Allen Flynn, director, explained, “This is a very powerful play, both humorous and sad, but ultimately uplifting. Friel’s play deals with identity, the notion of truth and communication and how memories, both public and private, enable us to ride the highs and lows of life. “Throughout the play, images from the past flood into Cass’s head and the story unfolds when, after 51 years in America, …