‘Valley’ returns to Mullingar Arts Centre and the Gaiety

Following its nomination for an Irish Times Theatre Award in 2019 and sell-out shows at the Gaiety and Mullingar Arts Centre, Michael Scott’s play The Valley Of The Squinting Windows based on the book by Brinsley MacNamara returns to both venues this month.

It features Geraldine Plunkett, Ciara O’Callaghan, Donagh Deeney, Philip Judge, Siobhan Callaghan, Sinead Murphy, Peter Rothwell, Conall Curran (making his professional stage debut), and includes Mullingar based community cast members including Richie Geoghegan, Paul Doolin, Alan Conroy, Christy Cole, Josh Griffin and Caolan Moriarty as Brinsley MacNamara, and young actors from Mullingar Arts Centre’s Stage Schools.

The production show sold out two weeks before it opened at the Gaiety in 2023.

Set in 1918, and opening with the infamous burning of the book in the village of Delvin, the production uses digital video and audio technologies, the 14 professional actors, and a company of community players.

With music by 18th century Irish composer John Field played live, and an electronic score by Michael Scott, the production creates theatre that puts audiences on the edge of their seats.

Brinsley McNamara’s novel was read in public in the year of its publication (1918) on the steps of Clonyn castle to the gathered villagers of Delvin. Understandably, the locals were excited that one of their own had written a published book, but during the reading, they realised that the fictional characters in the novel were representative of the people in and around. Pride turned to hostility and an ensuing national scandal.

Copies of the book were burned in the centre of the village and. The villagers, so insulted by MacNamara’s novel, turned their anger towards the author’s father, James Weldon, principal of the national school at nearby Balinvalley. Parents refused to send their children to the school, and Weldon was forced to emigrate. Brindsley also left Delvin never to return.

• Tickets for Mullingar, October 24-26: mullingarartscentre.ie; 04493 47777

• Tickets for Dublin, October 28 to November 2: gaietytheatre.ie.