St Mary’s Staff and Alumni Win Drama Award

Former and current staff and students from St Mary’s University, Twickenham recently won a Swan Award for their performance of Dermot Bolger’s From These Green Heights. The Swan Awards is organised by the Arts Richmond Council for Drama and Musical Productions across the borough. During the 2014 ceremony, From These Green Heights picked up ‘Best production of a play’ award. Irish author Dermot Bolger’s From These Green Heights is based on true events and tells the story of two families living in a tower block in Dublin between the 1960s and 2004. It won the Irish Times ESB Prize for Best New Irish Play in 2004 and was nominated in six categories of the Swan Awards this year for this adaption. As well as winning best production of a play, Dorothy Duffy won an award for best Actress as the role of Carmal. The judges said of the show, “It is not an easy play to stage and covering so many difficult subjects, the direction brought out faultless performances from all the actors combining comedy and warmth, giving the audience a disturbing and memorable evening.” The play was performed for the first time outside of Ireland in June, staged in association with the Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre.The production was choreographed by recent St Mary’s Physical Theatre graduate Ben Hansell, while former Drama student Lee Akram acted as the Assistant Stage Manager and Linda Sirker, the Director. St Mary’s Multimedia and Learning Support Specialist Lisette Barlow, who played one of the lead roles said, “During the run we knew we had a special show as we frequently had the audience in fits of laughter followed shortly by them sobbing their eyes out, we even had the mayor of Richmond in one night and she insisted on coming onto the stage to kiss us all whilst sobbing. “We sold out by the end and concluded the run with a standing ovation from the audience. My role as Marie was tricky, my character fell in love, had a child and experienced the death of both her mother and sister in Ballymun. I had to combine sorrow and laughs in many of my monologues all whilst keeping up a Dublin accent and making several quick costume changes in the wings featuring an array of clothing from the 1970s through to the 00’s. I couldn’t have done it without the support of Linda’s clear direction and the wonderful and professional actors and crew working alongside me. We really turned into a little Irish family and genuinely cried most nights when watching the Ballymum towers come down to the Ballymun lullaby, the writing is truly beautiful. “We were so proud of our production and delighted when Dorothy and Linda won the Swan Awards, It was a joy to work for Linda on this brilliantly written piece and I hope to work on other projects with her and the RSS in the future.”