Theatre Review: Ardnaglass on the Air
Written by Co Antrim playwright Jimmy Kerr, I saw this hilarious show at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, where it received a standing ovation from a thoroughly charmed audience. Produced by c21 Theatre Company it's a slapstick comedy concerned with the hilarious happenings of the fictitious rural community of Ardnaglass.
Its local community radio presenters, the hopeless romantic Hugh Francis, played impeccably by actor Marty Maguire, and the object of this unrequited love Margaret Mary Rose, (Jo Donnelly - a formidable comic athlete), are charged with broadcasting the goings-on across the local area.
The hapless pair, Margaret Mary Rose, a fame-seeking, day dreaming barmaid by day, and Hugh Francis, a muck-splattered pig farmer, who lives with and looks after his mammy, broadcast the show from a cluttered, throughother outhouse. This is theatre at its purest and best - two actors alone on stage with nothing but a cracking script and a wonderful rapport. Catch it if you can as it tours venues across the Province.