Bailegangaire

'Bailegangaire' was first performed by Druid Theatre Company, Galway, in 1985. An endless folk story told by a senile old woman is woven through her granddaughters' arguments and struggles to free themselves from her. Night after night, in lyrical and relentless detail, Mommo begins to relate the story of a laughing competition in Bailegangaire and how the town came by its name - 'the town without laughter'. Of her two granddaughters, she only recognises Dolly, and not Mary who does most to look after her. The younger women yearn to be free of the past in order to make a new beginning, and Mary comes to believe that to do so the story of Bailegangaire has to be concluded.