The New York hit show, Donal O’Kelly’s The Cambria, comes to Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet Arts Centre, for one night only: 8.30pm, Sunday April 26, tickets €15 and €12 from 097 81079.
The Cambria comes to Belmullet straight from off-Broadway success in New York. Directed by Raymond Keane of Barabbas, and starring Sorcha Fox and Donal O’Kelly, The Cambria had a hugely successful run in the Irish Arts Centre New York, supported by Culture Ireland.
Donal O’Kelly is renowned for his award-winning plays and performances on stage and film. What is less well known is his strong connections with Erris. Local director Bridie Quinn gave Donal his first part as Squire Corrigan in The Colleen Bawn, which played in Geesala in the seventies. More recently, he has been instrumental in organising the Afri fund-raising and awareness evenings in Glenamoy.
The Cambria was a trans-Atlantic paddle-steamer. On August 10, 1845, among the passengers on board from Boston was an escaped slave called Frederick Douglass, whose autobiography had just become a best-seller. Slave-owners placed a price on his head and he was forced to flee the US. He came to Ireland in an eventful voyage, culminating in a mob attempt to throw Douglass overboard. The Cambria tells the story of how he survived to become what Abraham Lincoln called "the most impressive man I ever met”, and to become the rhetorical inspiration for Barack Obama in his campaign to become 44th president of the United States.
