A One Act Play set in Mick Donnelly’s Pub, Lismore, Co. Waterford, circa 1964.
Fr Tom is asleep at the bar when Coleman bursts in with a bang from a howling night outside with Johnny (his one legged side kick – barred from every pub from here to Cappoquin). Mick wants them out! But they only want just the one, just the one like.
The clock is ticking but the clock is broken. There’s talk of a local murder and 'the lovely May'.
A gun shot is heard in the distance and Johnny is back to a cold field in France. Then the phone rings, a call for Fr Tom.
The Prodger is inspired by stories the writer absorbed about her grand Uncle John who served as a Private in World War I. He lost a leg, woke up in a morgue and several more years lost in Dublin military hospitals recuperating mentally and physically before he returned to Lismore in 1924. He never married; he never had children but lived to a decent enough age, etching a living as a carpenter and an artist, despite suffering flashbacks all his life.
Written by Tina Noonan
Directed by Patrick J Byrnes
Performed by Seamus Moran, Brendan Conroy, Joe Moylan and Frank Melia
About the Writer
Tina was shortlisted for an RTE P J O’Connor Radio Award in 2007 for her first radio play, Leonie Summers Night, (about 3 single mothers on a council estate). The Prodger is her first stage play. She has a BSc in Communications and Cultural Studies from North London University. She is also a participant of Solar Theatre’s writer’s workshops, a regular at Listowel Writers Week courses and a member of Abraxus Writers Group.
