Stage Door News

Kingston: Theatre Kingston presents “Een” by Rosemary Doyle March 3-25

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Follow the journey of Tanya college-age girl who goes to Ireland to meet her maternal grandmother for the first time. We will learn of the secrets of four generations of this family and come to understand the reasons that their lives have spun into such a tale as this.

EEN is the Irish suffix for Little, think Maureen (Little Mary) Colleen (Little Girl). I wrote this play as an exploration of my grandmother's house, which was a little "Thatch house that now had a galvanized roof - when she couldn't find thatchers anymore" So everything described in this play is just as I remember it. I say remember because much of that Ireland doesn't exist anymore - including my grandmother's house.

The Celtic Tiger - the nick name to the economic boom of Ireland changed much of the way the country existed. Prior to the 90's Ireland had been one of the poorest countries in the world for over 200 years, and suddenly that changed with the economic growth at an average annual rate of 9.4% between 1995 and 2000, and between 1987 and 2007, Ireland’s GDP grew by 229%. 

People were not concerning themselves with preserving the Ireland of the past. That wasn't thought of as charming, but was the symbol of the poverty and starvation that had been handed to generations of Irish people. Visiting there was like going thru a time machine when sometimes it was now, and sometimes you would turn a corner it was the 1700s. I remember going to Bellevue house, and saying to the tourguide, "Oh I've bathed in one of those copper tubs - every summer".

I will tell you that the main characters of this play are entirely made up. And the events never happened to any real people that I know. I am sure that parts of these stories are universal to that time and place, Kevin Head told me when we hired him that his grandfather's name was actually Thomas Miller, so maybe that's fate, and so maybe your will remember something about your family within the evening.

My dear departed mother was an Irish psychic after all, so who knows.

I dedicate this play to her, and to Ethel her mother.

Beannaigh an lucht féachana

(Bless the audience)

I would be honoured if you would come.

Rosemary Doyle

For tickets visit www.eventbrite.ca