Ballybofey’s Butt Drama Circle are tops at Ballyshannon Drama Festival

The Butt Drama Circle has scooped the major awards at the annual Ballyshannon Drama Festival awards as well as taking the coveted Blue Riband as the overall winners of the festival.

Local Ballyshannon man Damien Gallagher, was inducted into the Ballyshannon Drama Festival’s Hall of Fame, which there was also a huge accolade for long time Festival usher, Gordon Walsh, who we learned had his 89th birthday during the course of the festival.

The Butt Drama Circle presentation on Wednesday night was another new play by Shaun Byrne - Darkness Echo. 

The play is a three-hander family drama set in present day Ballybofey, which mixes serious themes with dark humour. It’s 2015 and Joe returns home to Donegal from London after some years away. 

His father, aided by home help Marie, encourages him to deal with issues concerning his own leaving some years earlier.

Directed by Shane himself, the play also starred Mairead McMenamin and JC Bonar.

The BDC won the Open Section; Blue Riband (overall winner); Best Producer award for Shaun Byrne; Best Actor award for JC Bonar; Best Set award was won by JC Bonar; Best Lighting awards and the Best Stage Manager Award went to Brenda Duffy.

They also took the coveted Audience Award.

They now hope to secure a second place in another festival this week, the Strabane Drama Festival, in order for them to make the cut for the All Ireland finals in Athlone. "Darkness Echoing" also did extremely well in the Enniskillen and Cavan drama Festivals; finishing in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, in the open category.

Meanwhile, the local Ballyshannon Drama Society are already heading Athlone way with their production of A Delicate Balance, which captivated audiences on the Saturday night.

Ballyshannon Drama Society’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama offering was ‘A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee. 

The uneasy existence of upper-middle class suburbanites Agnes and Tobias and their permanent houseguest, Agnes’s witty and alcoholic sister Claire, is disrupted by the sudden appearance of lifelong family friends Harry

and Edna, fellow empty nesters with free-floating anxiety, who ask to stay with them to escape some unknown terror. They are soon followed by Agnes and Tobias’s 36 year old daughter Julia, who returns home following the collapse of her fourth marriage.