Widely acclaimed comedy play is back in Ballina

Coming to Ballina soon, Tommy Marren’s ‘3 Hail Marys' is a rip-roaring comedy that will have you in tears of laughter, a play which both entertains and educates.

The three main characters have lived in a nursing home together for over ten years and have become great friends. But now they are being moved to three separate nursing homes and this play is set around their last few hours together.

Mary O’Toole is a very religious character who has great devotion to Our Lady of Knock. Mary O’Neill is a Londoner who met and subsequently married a Kerry man and moved to Ireland. Mary O’Brien is a retired nurse who has travelled to almost every corner of the world.

With dozens of hilarious one-liners, the play moves with pace throughout as the three Marys laugh, cry, argue, sing, dance and recount their life experiences. From statues to fishing rods, a would-be music composer, an enthusiastic and very posh ‘volunteer’ and a very frustrated nursing home owner, this play has everything, including lots of twists.

Broadcaster and writer Tommy Marren also composed a song for his play. ‘I’m Really Still The Same’ is written from the perspective of a person who has dementia asking loved ones to treat them the same way as they always did, and the song features at a key moment in the play.

With dementia so prevalent in Ireland, this is a play that is as much thought-provoking as it is funny, and the script has been meticulously crafted to ensure that it is sensitive and compassionate to the subject of memory loss.

After a five-year rest from touring, the hugely-acclaimed ‘3 Hail Marys’ returns to Ballina Arts Centre on Saturday, November 22, at 8pm. Tickets cost €26/€24, plus booking fee. You can book online at www.ballinaartscentre.com, telephone 096-73593 or email info@ballinaartscentre.com.