Craddock’s Well cast and crew Sean Ferry, Patrick Mullins, Martin Murphy, Peter O’Rourke, Jim Quirke Mick Maloney, Luke Fitzgerald, Sean Ryan, Michael Nolan, Paul Fitzgerald, Brid Waters, Hannah Ferry, Sean Rose and Tina Kavanagh

A FUNNY but affecting snapshot of rural life is set to entertain audiences in Killoughternane next week.

The long-running Killoughternane Drama Group returns this month with a production of Michael Carey’s Craddock’s Well. The show takes place in Killoughternane Hall at 8pm from 18-20 March. The play touches on themes of loneliness and emigration in a rural way of life that’s both very humorous and touching.

“There is everything: drama, sadness and comedy. It’s about rural Ireland in the 1980s with immigration, but it goes back to the 1930s and the economic war,” said producer Jim Quirke.

“It’s a good play which deals with something that we would have all have experienced: people leaving and returning to an area, people passing on. It’s a snapshot of rural life.”

The production marks a change for the ever-popular drama group with a large cast of 14. Jim said the group had shied away from large cast productions in the past as it could prove unwieldly with scheduling.

“We wanted to try to bring new people in this year,” said Jim. “We have four or five new people who had never done plays before.”

The cast includes Patrick Mullins, Sarah Rose, Seán Ferry, Martin Murphy, Peter O’Rourke, Mick Maloney, Luke Fitzgerald, Seán Ryan, Jim Quirke, Michael Nolan, Paul Fitzgerald, Brid Waters, Hannah Ferry and Tina Kavanagh. Tickets cost €10 and are available at the door. Set design is by Frank O’Connell, with Olivia O’Shea handling the sound and lighting.