Theatre Review: Mushroom pickers
can’t avoid spectres from the past
 By
Grainne McLoughlin
Theatrepublik are set to present the World Premiere of The Mushroom Pickers
by Irish playwright Jaqueline McCarrick. The darkly humourous play —
which stars Catherine Cusack and John Kirk — focuses on a group
of people who sell mushrooms for a living.
Set on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the
area notoriously know as Bandit Country The Mushroom Pickers explores
how even after de-commissioning many freedom fighters/terrorists are never
truly able to relinquish their former violence and beliefs.
Abandoning her acting career in London Laura has returned to her childhood
home in Ireland’s Co. Monaghan.
She has a secret and as she settles into life working at the nearby mushroom
farm she finds herself increasingly haunted by both the ghosts of the
past and spectres of the present. Attracted to her boss Frank she is slowly
drawn into the conspiracy of silence surrounding him with tragic results.
The Mushroom Pickers is the debut collaboration between writer and director
team Svetlana Dimcovic and Jacqueline McCarrick who met at the Royal National
Theatre Studio course for young artists.
Writer Jacqueline McCarrick originally hails from Dundalk and is a graduate
of Trinity College, Dublin. Her plays The Mushroom Pickers and The Moth-Hour
have received staged readings at The Old Vic. |
