New Ballybofey play “As I Lay Dreaming” revives Annie McGinley story

“As I Lay Dreaming”, a new memory play by Ballybofey writer‑director Shaun Byrne, will debut in early October, dramatising the 1926 portrait of Annie McGinley by American artist Rockwell Kent.

The three‑person production shifts between 1926, when Kent converted a Glencolumbcille cowshed into his “Waldorf‑Astoria” studio and asked 20‑year‑old Annie to sit for a portrait that some locals deemed “improper”, 1958, when Kent returned, and 1971, when news of his death prompts an older Annie to reflect on art and memory.

Aoibhinn O’Doherty, a Derry native and drama graduate of Liverpool John Moores University, plays the younger Annie. Maggie Hannon, a Prague Academy of Performing Arts graduate fluent in Irish and English, portrays the older Annie. Rockwell Kent is performed by Ciarán Crawford, who has appeared in Off‑Broadway productions and films such as “Black Mass”.

Byrne, a veteran of Donegal’s theatre scene for more than three decades, co‑directs with Raphoe’s Mark McCollum. The play follows Byrne’s earlier local work “One Night at Glenlough”.

The premiere takes place at An Grianán Theatre in Letterkenny on 7 October, with subsequent shows at Halla Mhuire Glencolumbcille on 9 October and The Balor Arts Centre on 11 October.

Source: Donegal Daily. Photo: Eloi Motte / Pexels.