ARTS & PARTS: Great local drama, top-class comedy and fascinating stories from a cycling hero

Rock n Roll Years and Dancehall Days

After last year's smash-hit tour this nostalgic musical hits the road again. The cast will take you on a whirlwind journey through the musical decades of the 50s and 60s paying homage to the lives and music of the Stars of the Era. 

Featuring George Jones, Clubsound and four singers.  Combining evocative love ballads with the greatest Rock 'N' Roll hit songs of the era, this show will carry the audience back to a time when dance halls were full and the youngsters danced, jived and rocked to the Four Seasons, Ruby Murray, Bobby Darin, Elvis and more at the Balor Arts Centre, Ballybofey Saturday, February 22.

Steel Magnolias 

The Butt Drama Circle presents Steel Magnolias from Monday, February 17 to Wednesday, February 19 at 8pm nightly. The play is set in Truvy’s Beauty Salon, Chinquapin, Louisiana where Truvy is hairdresser, confidante and wisdom-dispensing oracle to a host of memorable characters. 

Steel Magnolias is a play filled with hilarious repartee and humorously revealing exchanges with comedy and tragedy in equal measure. The Butt Drama Circle has high standards to live up to. Last year’s festival play, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by  Frank McGuinness won several festivals, qualifying for the All Ireland Finals in Athlone where it finished a very credible fifth. J C Bonar, director of last year’s play, is back at the helm although the cast is, obviously, much changed - Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me featured three men while Steel Magnolias has a cast of six women. 

Tickets are €12 & €10 concession available from The Balor Box Office on 0749131840 or online at www.balorartscentre.com 

Andrew Maxwell

Andrew Maxwell returns to The Balor next week. Andrew’s comedy isn’t just funny, it’s also intelligent, cutting edge social commentary. Not afraid to take on tough political subjects that some comedians just skirt around he gives you his hysterical yet perfectly thought out point of view every time. He’s wowed fans at just about every major comedy festival and venue you can name and reaction to his new show Reality proves he’s still at his hilarious maverick best. Andrew Maxwell’s Reality is at The Balor, Ballybofey on Thursday, February 20 at 8pm. 

Dramateurs 

Dramateurs is a hilarious, brand new comedy by Letterkenny Music and Drama Group member Kieran Kelly, author of Beneath an Irish Sky, which made it to the All Ireland Drama Finals in 2018. T

his is an unabashed love letter to the world of Irish amateur drama and the redemptive power of local theatre. This play will compete on the Drama Festival Circuit in March 2020. It tells the tale of the once nationally renowned Fianna Players of Ballynascale who have not performed on the Irish Amateur Drama Circuit for over ten years, and are about to make their long-awaited and much-anticipated comeback as they host their first-ever drama festival in their local town hall. However, before they get to perform their brand new play, an epic tale based on the Táin Bó Cuailgne and the mighty Cúchulainn, tragedy strikes. As their former member Fionn McDevitt returns home from self-imposed exile in Boston, he must face up to the actions of his past and attempt to reunite the Fianna Players once more to stage their epic production. 

It’s on this Friday and Saturday in An Grianán Theatre. Tickets from 074 91 20777 and angrianan.com 

Mark Beaumont 

Mark Beaumont talks live at An Grianán Theatre about his amazing feats on Monday, February  24 February.

Mark Beaumont sets out to make this Victorian fiction a two-wheeled reality. Having smashed the circumnavigation cycling world record twice in his career, he now holds this 18,000 mile title in a time of 78 days and 14 hours, averaging 240 miles a day. Over the past decade Mark’s epic documentaries have taken viewers to over 100 countries, into the Arctic, the high mountains and around the Commonwealth, also surviving capsize in the mid-Atlantic. Showing films and photography, this show is sure to be a fascinating insight into Mark’s career of adventure. Tickets from 074 91 20777 and angrianan.com 

READ MORE: THE ARTS COLUMN: Scottish songstress Eddie Reader and a great local drama production among this week's highlights