Oklahoma Review

One of the highlights of these years Arts Festival was the musical Oklahoma, staged at Barry Deering’s farm in Dunlavin. In his introduction, John Lynott referred to the historical coincidence – the State of Oklahoma being the same age as the barn. The antique farm machinery, water wheel, straw bales, all created a unique atmosphere for the event.

The show, which played to full houses each night, delighted the audiences. The first surprise was the entry of Curly (Gerald Vaughan) on horseback. Curly seemed very relaxed in his major role. Hazel Barrett in the part of Aunt Eller was a real revelation. The O’Keefe sisters from Stratford gave magnificent performances. Siobhan played and sang the part of Laurey with outstanding confidence and Kerri really warmed to the difficult role of Ado. Will Parker was played superbly by Martin–a newcomer to the group. Once again, Jimmy Tinkler delighted in the part of Ali Hakins, he and Des O’Mahony as Andrew Barnes provided some of the best laughs of the show. The villain Jud Fry was played with panache and deep understanding by Jude Courellan. Gertie Cummings was played by local girl Jill Heartley–her unique laugh never departing of the happy couple in the ‘surrey’ courtesy of Frances Geoghegan. The very docile horse was supplied by the Kelly brothers.

The wonderful artwork was done by Aindrias Couvelan–nephew of Jude whose long hours of hard work in the barn were made bearable by help from Yvonne Colebarn, Anne Lynott, and Sarah Lennon.

Music for Oklahoma was from Dunlavin’s Youth Orchestra–30 young people from the locality under the tutorship of D. O’Sullivan and Gerry Mullins. Choral work was from the Milltown Singers and friends, trained by Mary Deering. The man in charge of production was Frank Moynihan.

Taken from Leinster Leader, July 1999.

'The Armed Man'

The Armed Man is the name of a Mass by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, subtitled "A Mass for Peace". The piece was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds for the Millennium celebrations and was initially dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. Like Benjamin Britten's War Requiem before it, it is essentially an anti-war piece. Also like Britten's work, this piece is based on the Christian Mass which he combines with other sources, principally the fifteenth century folk song L'homme armé in the first and last movements.

The piece was originally commissioned by Guy Wilson Master of the Royal Armouries when the headquarters were moved from London to Leeds. Although Guy made his career in the armoury, he was a gentle man who understood the down side of war . Thus it is his text which forms the 11th movement of this work "Now the Guns have Stopped" which has is almost a reply to the dead First World War Poets.

The Milltown singers have performed this in the Dunlavin Arts Festival in the summer of 2009!