The Tailor and Ansty,Ronan Wilmot and Nuala Hayes, In Gougane Barra

The Tailor and Ansty

by Eric Cross Adapted by PJ O’Connor

Directed by Nuala Hayes

with Ronan Wilmot and Nuala Hayes

The Tailor and Ansty by Eric Cross was revived by The New Theatre in the summer of 2005, when it opened at the Gougane Barra Hotel, West Cork and delighted packed houses for five weeks. It played in a marquee beside the lake, near to the tiny, beautiful graveyard where the tailor Timothy Buckley and his wife Ansty are buried and just down the road from the cottage where they lived.

The Irish Examiner gave the production four stars calling it “an enchanting play” and describing Ronan Wilmot as “the tailor to the life”. The Tailor and Ansty returns to Gougane Barra this summer from London, playing at the hotel from 12^thto the 31st of August.

When Eric Cross’s book was first published in 1942 it led to an immediate controversy which resulted in the senate in Dublin debating its contents for four days. The book featured many of the popular stories of a West Cork seanchaí and tailor Timothy Buckley. The subsequent banning of the book led to Tim and his wife Anastasia being visited by three of the local clergy, who forced him to burn his copy of the book in his own fireplace. Tragically the couple were then ostracised by some of their own community. Many of the tailor’s stories reflected his own love of nature and had a raw vitality, humour and sexuality out of step with the mores of the time.

Ronan Wilmot (the Tailor) is a Director of The New Theatre, Dublin and has acted with

The Abbey, The Gate, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Liverpool Playhouse, The Royal Court, and The Young Vic. In 1975 he toured The Tailor and Ansty, in a bread van, all around Ireland with the great actor and seanchaí Eamon Kelly playing the tailor and Maura O’Sullivan playing his wife Ansty.

Nuala Hayes both directs the show and plays the part of Ansty, the tailor’s wife. She is a well known actor and broadcaster and was a member of The Abbey Theatre Company for many years. She has performed with theatre companies in Ireland, the UK, Canada and the USA. Nuala founded and was a Director of Scéalta Shamhna, The Dublin Story Telling Festival for ten years.

In 2005 Nuala was awarded a Cork 2005/ Credit Union Residency to work with the older generation of Cape Clear Islanders, recording their stories and memories. The resulting book, Bóithrín na Smaointe, with photos by John Minihan. will be published by Skibbereen Press this March..