The acclaimed new contemporary folk musical ‘In the Midst of Plenty’ will tour to the Town Hall Theatre on June 7 and 8 as part of Roscommon-based Enchanted Croí Theatre’s Irish tour. The work of a women-led creative team, the piece amplifies the seldom-told stories of impoverished women and the choices they made as they fought to survive 19th-century cottier life.
The show is the work of California-based writer/composer-lyricist Amy Day, who was inspired to write the piece in 2019 after visiting the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park while on a day off from teaching a course at the University of Galway.
She says: “As a folk musician, I had been wanting for some time to turn my focus to writing a full-length folk musical along the lines of Once or Come From Away. But I knew I had to wait to find the right story, something I’d want to learn about and dwell in and find important enough to truly make the focus of my life and my creative work for many years. The story of the exodus of the 1490 emigrants from the Strokestown Estate in 1847, set against the backdrop of the plot to assassinate the estate’s landlord, felt like the right story to me.”
Amy used the isolation of the pandemic years to focus on this writing project, and quickly developed the script and score for ‘In the Midst of Plenty’ under the guidance of Maynooth-based Famine historian Dr Ciaran Reilly. Amy knew that it wasn’t the story of the landlord she wanted to place at the centre of the work.
“The landlord’s story has been told so many times,” explained Amy. “The interesting work for me was learning about the lives of women who simply did not have access to the tools required in order to record their stories and experiences -- women who were quite literally voiceless -- and to give voice to them through music and song. And during the pandemic in particular, I was very focused on what it must have been like for a mother to live through the years of the Great Hunger, perceiving her community as a threat to her own family's survival."
One of the ways in which the piece amplifies the stories of cottier women is with the song ‘Your Mercy,’ which the production recently released as a studio single featuring Grainne Hunt. The song sets to music an original Famine-era petition written from a tenant to her landlord in 1848.
As the pandemic wound down, Amy connected with Anne-Marie O’Sullivan, founder and director of Strokestown-based Enchanted Croi Theatre. Anne-Marie’s company was awarded funding to develop ‘In the Midst of Plenty,’ which she brought from page to stage in Strokestown and then in the Roscommon Arts Centre in 2022, selling out all performances and garnering rave reviews.
“As a women-led theatre company touring a piece by a female writer, it has been important to us that the production places an emphasis on the stories of women, and that we provide meaningful opportunities for female creatives, including both our creative team and our cast,” says Anne-Marie. The show provides complex leading vocal and dramatic roles for its women-led cast.
Exploring themes of Irish womanhood, family, community, and rebellion, the production peels back the curtain of antiquity surrounding the Great Hunger, and presents an achingly beautiful story of love and survival in all of its bare, heartfelt authenticity.
The touring cast is led by Julie Sharkey (No Magic Pill ), and includes Niall Brewster (Squinty, Galway Fringe ), Conor O’Kane (HUME: Beyond Belief ), Martin Gilligan (Ros na Rún ), Mary Claire Ryan (Banshees of Inisherin ), Bláthnaid Daly (An Triail ), Áine O’Brien (Nationwide ), Eoghan Burke (Playboy of the Western World ), Anne-Marie O’Sullivan (Enchanted Croí Theatre ), and Ruairí Nicholl (Spring Awakening ), and the live folk band includes renowned trad fiddler Neil FitzGibbon, acclaimed folk artist Gráinne Hunt (recently supporting Glen Hansard and Declan O’Rourke ), Tracy Bruen, Jules Stewart, and Amy Day.
“We are honored to be able to take this show to communities across Ireland in 2023,” says Anne-Marie. “Many people are surprised when they hear that we have developed a musical set during the Famine, but we have found that the use of music, abstraction, and symbolism allow audiences to deal with, and perhaps to heal, this deep ancestral trauma in new ways.”
As part of the tour, the cast is addressing and hearing from a number of historical societies across Ireland. Doing so is an important part of their development of the show, incorporating community perspectives on the subject matter into their depiction of these sensitive events. The production will hold a community talkback immediately following the June 7 performance, sponsored by the Irish Workhouse Centre.
Tickets are available from inthemidstofplenty.com
