St. Boxfriend – Scene + Heard Festival – Smock Alley
Theatre – Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st February at 6:30pm in The Boys School

Terese spends her days in a back room restoring religious statues to their former glories. She also has to deal with her boss barking orders at her, breaking her quiet seclusion. It is a job without much distraction, except for this occasion where one of the statues comes to life!

Ireland has a long history of moving statues, but this statue of the Virgin Mary isn’t just moving, it’s there for a chat. After the initial shock of the appearance, Terese starts to talk to Mary to find out why she has come down to earth.

This is a short play by Louise O’Meara which is part of the ‘Smock Allies – Scene and Heard’ Festival at Smock Alley. The Festival aims to show work from new writers, actors and directors over the course of the next two weeks. The plays are generally short, and on this occasion there were two plays each only 3o minutes long with a short interval.

The play was a comedy with the Virgin Mary being nothing like you would except, with the type of conversation you hear on the last bus home on a Friday night and not from the Mother of our Lord! Terese (Clodagh Mooney Duggan) is suitably earnest and plays the straight woman for the Virgin Mary’s (Louise O’Meara) loud mouth banter. The interplay between the devout Terese and the irreverent Virgin Mary was an interesting device and made for an enjoyable short piece.

Written by: Louise O’Meara
Directed by: Clare Maguire
Cast: Clodagh Mooney Duggan, Louise O’Meara, Eithne McKeown