'Lovers' gets under way

Dick Dunphy can't remember how many Kilcullen Drama Group productions he's been in, but he does remember the first — 'Two on a String', produced in 1959 by Fr Smith.

Tonight he hit the boards again in Kilcullen, as the father in Bernard Farrell's 'Lovers at Versailles'.



Directed by Eilish Phillips, marking her involvement in no less than 15 productions with the group since making her stage debut in Hugh Leonard's 'Da' in 1997.

With Catherine Poufong as Dick's stage wife and Esther Dooley and Teresa Biddulph their children, 'Lovers in Versailles' charts the ups and downs of a family's life as the children work their way through adolescence into young adulthood.

Other cast members include Daffydd O'Shea, Roy Thompson, Sabina Reddy, Susan McGinley and Siobhan Murphy.

The play runs until Saturday night.

Tonight's preview show, as is traditional, had an audience which included Kilcullen's senior citizens.

"Every year, there are a few no longer with us," Pat Dunlea mused as they drifted in before curtain up. "But it's great to have our community's older people here."



Arriving with Bernard Berney are Sheila Kehoe and Theresa Kelly, and Peter O'Rourke.



Nuala Egan, Pat Dunlea and Madge Clarke.



Vivian Clarke and Roy Thompson.



'Somebody has to do the washing ...' Daffydd O'Shea lends a hand.



'Anyone for tea?' — director Eilis Philips.

— Brian Byrne.