At the Black Pig's Dyke

Written by Vincent Woods
Directed by Karen Carleton
Performed in Mill Theatre 29 January to 2 February 2008

Gala Evening (31 Jan) celebrated Balally Players 25th Anniversary

The Vincent Woods play, 'At the Black Pig's Dyke', under the direction of Karen Carleton, opened in the Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Dublin on Tuesday 29 January 2008. It was performed each night of the week with the last performance on Saturday 2 February 2008. A Gala Performance and Reception on Thursday 31 January was preceded by a cheese and wine reception before the show to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the founding of Balally Players.

 

'At the Black Pig's Dyke' is a story of murder, mystery, fairy tale and tragic love.

The play is set in the past and present on the border between the North and South of Ireland, around Leitrim and Fermanagh, where family feuds are passed down through generations.

>The story is told using the pagan ritual of the mummers' play as a metaphor for Ireland at a time where people laughed at a wake and cried when a child was born.

 

The production in the Mill Theatre involved many members of the group on stage and behind the scenes. The play uses ritual, mime, live music and dance to tell its story of murder, mystery fairy tale and tragic love.

The week's schedule began with two previews on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 January 2008.

The final performance was on Saturday 2 February 2008.

 

More information on playwright Vincent Woods, who is presenter of The_Arts_Show on RTE Radio One, can be found on the Irish Playography website.

'At the Black Pig's Dyke' is a story of murder, mystery, fairy tale and tragic love. The play is set on the border between the North and South of Ireland, around Leitrim and Fermanagh, where family feuds are passed down through generations.

 

Cast

Tom Fool Miss Funny Captain Mummer Doctor Butcher Beelzebub St.Patrick 1st Hero 2nd Hero Big Head Michael Flynn Mummers Mythic Woman Lizzie Boles Lizzie Flynn Sarah Brolly Hugh Brolly Frank Beirne Jack Boles

Geoffrey O'Keeffe Eithne Quinn Tony McGettigan Declan Brennan Len Nealon Jim Carroll Francis Cahill David Bowles Damien Molony Jacqueline Dooley Peter Flood Fionn Staines, Judy McKeever, Teresa Dempsey, Tomas Hoyne and Shane Murphy Margaret Twomey Caroline Williams Bernadette McLoughlin Niamh Daly John Canning Damien Molony Eoin Langford

 

The play and the playwright

The story is told using the pagan ritual of the mummers' play as a metaphor for Ireland at a time when people laughed at a wake and cried when a child was born. The play echoes the Unionist-Nationalist conflict in Ireland and there are lessons to be learned from the themes and actions in the play, written by Vincent Woods.

 

Vincent Woods is a poet and playwright. He was born in Co. Leitrim in 1960 and has lived in the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Woods worked as a journalist with RTÉ until 1989, when he began writing full-time. His radio play, The Leitrim Hotel, was a prizewinner in the P.J. O'Connor awards for radio drama and his poetry collections include The Colour of Language which is published by Dedalus Press. Woods is a member of Aosdana.

At the centre of the story of 'At the Black Pig's Dyke' is Lizzie Boles, a Catholic girl who has fallen in love with a Protestant, Jack.

However, Lizzie is sought after by Frank Beirne, son of the town butcher and among other things, a member of the mummers.

We see Lizzie as a young girl in Act One and as an older woman in the Second Act.

In Act II the action moves thirty years into the future and revolves around Sarah Boles, Lizzie and Jack’s daughter, and Hugh Brolly, her husband.

At the Black Pig's Dyke uses traditional folk theatre as a powerful storytelling metaphor to explore Ireland. It uses a mix of music, dance, song and rhyming to move between past and present generations, telling of the struggles and hopes of a family torn apart by sectarian violence and tribal hatred.

 

 

Mummers play an integral part of the story, first serving as comic relief and later revealed as being at the center of the violence. Adding Mummers, straw-masked traveling entertainers from Irish folklore, adds mystical and suspenseful undertones to the script.

These frightening 'hay men' conjure up horrific images of white-hooded night riders descending upon innocent families.

The setting may be Ireland, but violence and fear are universal themes.

 

The curiously named 'Black Pigs Dyke' was one of the most dominant ancient boundary formations in the country. It is not a dyke, but a trench running straight through the country, separating Ulster from the rest of Ireland. Legend has it that a mythical pig burrowed across the island, causing a natural divide. It is named after the legendary Black Pig which is reputed to have destroyed the Viking stronghold at Armagh and then fled westwards, gouging out her famous trench as she proceeded, until she was killed near Lough Gowna. At one time Dyke, which was mainly defensive in purpose, was recognised as the ancient boundary between Ulster and the rest of the county. It can still be traced running south-easterly from Lough Gowna towards Lough Kinale in Co. Westmeath.

In the actual Mumming, the actors perform the militant dances with staves and swords that repeat in symbolic form the Druidic rite of human sacrifice to revive the dying sun.

In pre Christian times it echoed the ritual involving agricultural fertility and in the middle ages, a version of the ritual where, in a fight between boasting knights, the one that is slain represents the Old Year.

After being killed by Winter, the New Year Knight is brought to life again with a magic potion from the Doctor, symbolising the promise of spring.

To view a copy of the advertisement for 'At the Black Pig's Dyke' in Adobe Reader format (version 5 or later) just click_on_this_link . The PDF file is 352KB. To save a copy, right-click on the link and choose "Save Target As...", "Save Link As...", or a similar option.

A PDF file (547KB) of the programme, which includes more information on the background to the story and on the people behind the production, may also be viewed here.