The Polished Trunk
Wexford Arts Centre, in association with Four Rivers, presents a public reading of The Polished Trunk by Reenagh Mc Call, directed by Katie McCann, at Wexford Arts Centre on March 26.
The Polished Trunk recounts the experiences of a returning first world war soldier to a new mythic Ireland, following the 1916 Rising in his absence. As his WW1 allies around the world are celebrated, he is shunned and essentially cancelled as he returns from a foreign war to a national one.
Told from the remembered experiences of Annie, who recalls her grandfather John’s stories from the battlefields of Gallipoli and Jerusalem while clearing away his trunk of war memorabilia. With each item she uncovers, his stirrups, his helmet, his puttees; she is reminded of war stories he had shared with her as a child and the tales he told of growing up in Wexford.
We flashback to experience the period before the Rising through the perspective of John’s Wexford family, divided between Redmondite and Independence ideals, that sees John enlist, supporting Home Rule, and their teenage son, Joe, become entangled in the Rebellion. All for the love of Ireland; up close fighting for it, or far away defending it, there are harrowing consequences to their decisions for the family, who have to live in the shadow of their service.
The cast is Naoise Dunbar; Tiernan Messitt Greene; Elishka Lane Barnes; Sharon Clancy; Olga Conway; Elizabeth Rose Browne; Michael Dunbar; Fintan Kelly.
Supported by Wexford County Council’s Decade of Centenaries Programme (2012- 2023) bursary and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under their Community Strand.