MAMÓ: A Story of Geraldine Plunkett Dillon

MAMÓ: A Story of Geraldine Plunkett Dillon
Written and Performed by Isolde Carmody
Devised and Directed by Donal O’Kelly

Mamó is a one-woman show based on the life and character of the playwright’s great-grandmother, Geraldine Plunkett Dillon, whose brother, Joseph Mary Plunkett, was the youngest signatory to the declaration of the Irish Republic in 1916.  It is a confluence of family and state history, and explores how a brother and sister sought independence from private and public tyranny.

The story is told through a unique blend of poetic monologue, physical performance and layered soundscape.  It explores themes of speech and silence, freedom and oppression, women’s history and the place of equality throughout the history of the “Mamó, my great-grandmother, was a woman of extraordinary intelligence, skill and education. She was convinced of the importance of telling the stories of those who were silenced through oppression and death. While she wrote extensive journals and memoirs of the people she had known, especially her brother, Joseph Mary Plunkett, she was not one to speak of her own extraordinary and 94-year-long life. These stories are the inheritances in which everyone has a share, and history is made up of a combination of all those family stories. My intent is to inhabit and interpret my own great-grandmother and her stories to a contemporary theatre audience.” – Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody

Drama – part of the ‘Cloughjordan Honours Thomas MacDonagh’ programme April 28th – 2nd May 2016 (May Bank Holiday Weekend)