'Powerful' Bloody Sunday play comes to An Coire in January

An acclaimed play based on real-life testimonies of female relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims is coming to South Derry in the new year.

4 Days in Derry, written and directed by Bernadette MacFarland, will play for two nights in An Coire Arts Centre, Slaughtneil, on January 9 and 10.

Following a sell-out run in the Millennium Forum earlier this year, the An Coire performances mark the first leg of a tour that will also travel to theatres in Armagh and Donegal before finishing off in Derry's St Columb's Hall in April.

Bernadette told the County Derry Post: “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to perform our play in South Derry. The people here have always been enormously supportive of the campaign for justice for the victims of Bloody Sunday, and 4 Days in Derry, which tells the stories - in their own words - of the wives, mothers, daughters and sisters of the men who were slain, is part of that endeavour to ensure that the atrocities carried out by state forces on innocent civilians, and the devastating impact it had on their families, are never forgotten.

“Telling these women's stories to audiences far and wide is so important to us. It is the driving force behind this tour and it is a privilege to be kicking things off here in South Derry.”

The play was written after Bernadette sat down with female relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims and listened to their personal accounts of the four days in and around one of the worst atrocities of The Troubles.

What they told her formed the basis of thirteen powerful and poignant monologues that are delivered in the play.

“Those interviews are an experience I will never forget,” said Bernadette. “I laughed with them. I cried with them. They told me how they coped - and didn’t cope. I came away from each interview thinking, 'What strong women'; what strong, strong women’.

“When it was finally performed, I was not prepared for the reaction. I could hear people crying in the audience. The actors delivering the monologues were emotional - because they needed to be, but also because they were overwhelmed by the emotion of the words they were speaking, which were full of rage, grief, pain and loss.”

An Carn Arts Officer Claire Doherty said: “We are delighted to be hosting 4 Days in Derry.

“It is a very powerful and moving play and I think the intimate performance space in An Coire will lend itself to that in a way that will be very special.”

4 Days in Derry, An Coire, Slaughtneil, January 9 and 10.

Tickets are available at An Carn