Newtownabbey Full Length Drama Festival

Tuesday 14 March - Friday 17 March 8pm

Saturday 18 March 7.30pm

This annual festival of excellent drama presents some of the best full length plays from amateur dramatic groups from Northern Ireland and beyond.
The Newtownabbey Drama Festival was started in 1982 as the brainchild of members of the Abbey Actors Company.

An Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council Event.

Tuesday 14 March

Dear Lupin by Michael Simpkins | Ballymoney Literary & Debating Society

The play charts Roger Mortimer’s hilarious, touching and always generous letters to his son Charlie and are packed with crisp anecdotes and sharp observations. Spanning Twenty-five years, their correspondence forms a memoir of their relationship and a very affectionate portrait of times gone by.

Wednesday 15 March

The Price by Arthur Miller | Theatre 3 Newtownabbey

Set in the attic of a Brownstone building in New York, which is due to be demolished, Victor Franz and his wife Esther are waiting for a furniture dealer to arrive to estimate the value of his late father’s furniture. There is only one potential catch- half the furniture belongs to Victor’s estranged brother, Walter, a wealthy surgeon. When Victor is about to close the deal with Solomon, the elderly dealer, Walter arrives. Why has he suddenly appeared?

Thursday 16 March

Toast by Nigel Slater | Rosemary Drama Group

A story of a little boy who feels abandoned because his mother has died and his father falls in love with another woman. The boy’s life suddenly changes with the arrival of a woman who is completely different from his mother.

Friday 17 March

One Man Two Guvnors by Richard Bean| Bart Players

Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from the dad of his fiancé. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead bother who has been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers. Holed up at the cricketer’s Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be reunited with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple!

Saturday 18 March - Please note tonight's performance starts at 7.30pm

Happy Days by Samuel Beckett | Newpoint Players

Winnie, a woman in her fifties, is buried waist deep in a mound of scorched earth, with just a large black shopping bag and a collapsed parasol. Behind her and hidden from view sleeps Willie. She laments that ‘poor Willie’ has no interest in life, but concedes that his constant sleeping is a gift she wishes she had.