|
Kathleen Desmond
 is an Irish teacher, drama in education lecturer/teacher, arts facilitator, director, producer and writer based in Dublin. She attended the New College of Speech and Drama North London and holds a Diploma in Dramatic Art from the London University. Later she attended the University of Dublin, Trinity College and was awarded (Honours BA Degree in English).
She works as a teacher and lecturer and in the art field as a writer and director for schools, colleges, fringe theatre companies and amateur drama groups.
UNRAVELLING MYTHS
Synopsis
is a modern version of the Greek Tragedy "Electra". Its theme is the cycle of revenge violence and it exposes the terrible legacy of conflict albeit domestic or political.
Ollie 22 years old returns to Belfast for the first time since he had left for America as a one-year-old with his mother Cynthia and his father Andrew and older sister Ellie. An earlier sister was killed by a rubber bullet. When in America Cynthia found herself more and more estranged from her husband, (she is a Protestant and he is a Catholic, they had at first been fighting for the same ideals but now she finds him espousing violence and capitalising on the propaganda surrounding their daughter’s death). As a result, a short time later Cynthia returns to Ireland alone and four years later at her request Andrew returns along with his new girlfriend Cassy and the young Ellie. Ollie remains in America. Andrew is shot dead in an ambush shortly after returning and is now an IRA hero and legend.
The play commences in 1992, when we see Ollie returning with photo journalist friend Frank, looking for a dramatic story. Ellie along with her compliant boy friend Raymond is an IRA activist. While Ellie lives with Cassy she despises her and she also has good reason to blame her mother Cynthia for having a major part in her father’s death. Ollie meets his mother and we get her side of the story; however he finds he cannot warm to her and is obsessed with Ellie, her image, her charisma and her alluring engagement with violence all serve to draw him in. His cocky naive attitude grates and impinges on Ellie’s carefully structured and well controlled territory. He makes a number of dangerous blunders and she wants rid of him. After raping and emasculating him in a fit of rage and anxiety she adroitly perceives that she can use him to avenge her father’s death and thereby resolve her festering hatred for her mother. In a bid to redeem his impotent status he agrees to carry out the murder of his mother, and ultimately suffers the consequence.
The play uses the situation in Northern Ireland in 1992 to explore the relationship between institutional violence, societal violence and domestic violence. It raises the issue of the media exploitation reflection and often celebration of that violence which makes it attractive and acceptable. It illuminates and encapsulates the tragic essence of the Northern Ireland troubles.
While the action is specifically located in the North of Ireland the truth of the drama is reflected in many global situations of conflict or post conflict.
Would you please contact Kathleen Desmond if you are interested in reading ”Unravelling Myths”
|
is an Israeli dramaturge and writer based in Amsterdam. She holds an M. A. in dramaturgy from the University of Amsterdam where she graduated with distinction. 
was born in Dublin and now lives nearby in Bray. In the 1980s he taught for two years in Jamaica. In 2010 he resigned from teaching to write full time and received a literary bursary from The Arts Council Of Ireland. His first novel Crazy Baldheads, which is set in the Caribbean, has been taken on by the Jonathan Williams Literary Agency. St John’s short stories have been published in New Irish Writing and broadcast on RTE Radio. Maxine is his first play.