THE WATERFORD COLLECTION - 3 plays by Tom O'Brien

3 plays set in the Waterford area.
QUEENIE….is the story of Victoria Dwan (Queenie), who has been institutionalised since an early age. Most of her life has been spent at the mental institution called St Josephs, on the outskirts of Dungarvan, although in later years she has been living there as a voluntary patient. Now, St Joseph’s is coming down and Queenie has been “released” into the community at large.
Her first port of call is to revival of the open-air stage-dancing at Granagh Cross, which she remembers from her youth. Her visit brings back to her memories of the tragic events which caused her to lose her sanity - and very nearly her life. Not always able to separate present-day reality from the past, Queenie also possesses second-sight - frightening psychic powers, which, in the past, had seen many in the neighbourhood label her a witch.
She sees things, she talks to spirits, and she holds the answers to a series of traumatic events which had consequences for many in the neighbourhood: not least her sister’s tragic death by drowning in the Black Hole, or the vicious beating and ultimate disappearance of William Greatorix, an itinerant English labourer. 2m 2f


MONEY FROM AMERICA.... centres round the return of Jack Carey to his home – a Comeragh hill-farm - from America. Having subsidised his brother, Lardy, over the years with money from America, Jack has returned to stake his rightful claim on the farm as elder brother. However, Lardy proves less than willing to give way to change, having lived a solitary life of poteen-manufacturing with only Molly the pig farmer for company. When Jack’s fiancée Phyllis arrives from Dublin to set things right tempers flare and secrets are spilled. Jack is subsequently found murdered after a heavy drinking session with Lardy, and the police are determined to prove that Lardy is the culprit. It turns out to be not as simple as that, however. 4m 3f

JOHNJO...is the study of a man from the cradle to the grave. Forced to go on the run from his Comeragh hill farm at an early age, Johnjo washes up in Lincolnshire in war-time England. Working on farms, and often finding himself treated worse than the prisoners-of-war, he goes on the run again. And so begins a life-long association with ‘the lump’ – the dark underbelly of the construction industry. From building motorways and living in camps you ‘wouldn’t keep a decent dog in’, we eventually find him working in London for a ‘subby’ called Bannaher – not having been home to Ireland for more than thirty years. Disillusioned and bitter at having been ground down by the harshness of his life, he, nevertheless, hangs on to a few sparks of defiance. The final straw comes when he sees his friend (lover?) buried alive in the trench they are working in, and he embarks on a rebellious ‘last hurrah’. 1m