Virginians bring Sive to Ramor

It might be hard for the current generation to comprehend the idea of “matchmaking” or a time before online dating, such as Tinder and Plenty of Fish. However the story of Sive by John B Keane is still that of putting two people together with a view to marriage but set against the harsh poverty and difficult times of 1950’s Ireland.
Sive is a powerful and provocative story of greed, bitterness, a scheming matchmaker and a resentful woman forcing a beautiful young girl to marry an old man.
The play written by John B Keane is based on an encounter he had in his pub in Listowel. One afternoon while John B Keane was working behind the counter a haggard old man called in for a drink. He announced to all and sundry that a match had been arranged for him and that he would be getting married in the not too distant future.
He requested that John B would accompany him to a nearby jewellery show to help him purchase the ring for his intended bride to be. John B visited the shop with the man but thought no further about the encounter until months later. To his dismay he heard from a friend that the old man had married a girl who was too young for him. He also discovered that the young girl was deeply unhappy and ended up institutionalised after a nervous breakdown, and so the play Sive was born.
Performed by the Virginians under their Director Vincent Lee and produced for the theatre by Mary Hanley the story centres on 18 year-old Sive played by Nicola Cadden. She is illegitimate and lives with her Uncle Mike (Rory O’Connell) and his wife Mena (Frances O' Connell) and Nanna (Marian Clancy). A local matchmaker Thomasheen Sean Rua (Vincent Lee) decides that Sive should marry an old man called Sean Dota (Jimmy Fitzsimons) who is rich but Old! Thomasheen convinces Mena to organise the marriage of Sive to Sean Dota for which they will receive a sum of two hundred pound once the deal is struck.
Add into the mix the young man Liam Scuab (Fergus Connell) for whom Sive has a real liking and the colour and music of Carthalawn and Pats Bocock the “men of the road,” played by Jim McPartlin and Alexis Sheridan and you have the making of a great piece of theatre.
The play is a mixture of humour and sadness and the final scene is strong and powerful and as John B himself wrote of it: “For me, writing the final scene was one of the most profound moments of my life, and I found myself overwhelmed by emotion”.
The show runs at the Ramor Theatre from Wednesday 26th to Saturday 29th October.
Early booking is advised online at www.ramortheatre.com or 049 8547074.