Dramatic feast for all at annual festival

Tonight (Thursday) The Diamond Experience, a tribute to American singer/songwriter Neil Diamond, is at 8.00pm. Tickets are available at the theatre.

Next week six companies arrive in Larne for the 66th annual drama festival. Last week we previewed the first three plays – Dancing At Lughnasa, Drama At Inish and Our Town.

On the Thursday night, Theatre 3, Newtownabbey, presents the first play new to Larne audiences. This is Edward Albee’s American drama, Three Tall Women. The script won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for drama, the third time that the author has been given this accolade. Basically it concerns a very elderly woman reviewing her life.

She is visited by two other women, who appear as their own personae in Act 1, and then in Act 2 represent various aspects in the old lady’s life. Dorothy Wylie, Jackie Adair and Letitia Fitzpatrick appear as the three women.

One of the best known Irish plays of last century is given an airing by Newpoint Players from Newry on Friday evening. The Field by J B Keane has appeared in theatres all over the world, and was filmed with Richard Harris in the title role of Bull McCabe. McCabe is a man obsessed with land, and possessing land. The play is a fierce and tender study of the love a man can have for land, and the ruthless lengths he will go to obtain the object of his desire.

A very large cast travels to Larne, under the experienced direction of Charlie Smith who has been involved in the amateur stage in Newry for most of his life.

The festival finishes on Saturday night with Belvoir Players from Belfast in Unravelling the Ribbon, directed by Richard Mills. Once again the focus is on three women, each of whom is facing cancer. The play was originally produced in co-operation with the Ulster Cancer Foundation.

It’s the story of the courage of the three, who come together to help each other cope with the changes that breast cancer brings to their lives, and the impact it has on their families. Albeit a dark subject, there is much humour in the script; above all there is hope.

Admission to the festival, which starts at 7.30pm each evening, is 6. Best value is a season ticket which covers all six nights of the season and costs just 20. Tickets are available at the door on the evening of performance.

At the Carnegie Centre, Larne Art Club’s spring exhibition continues Monday to Saturday until March 30. The centre is also hosting a St Patrick’s Irish evening on March 19. Give My head Peace will be in the McNeill Theatre on March 29.