The Loved Ones' all set to bring a bit of magic to Longford's Backstage Theatre

Backstage Theatre, Longford will host a wonderful production next week as Rough Magic and the Gate Theatre present Erica Murray’s The Loved Ones on Saturday, April 26 as part of a national tour this spring.

In a remote renovated farmhouse, Nell (Jane Brennan) prepares to scatter her son’s ashes with her grieving daughter-in-law, Orla (Margaret McAuliffe), while Cheryl-Ann (Helen Norton), a visitor from America, settles in for an idyllic break in the wilds of West Clare.

“It's an extraordinary play,” Helen Norton told the Leader about the show, “It tells exciting and interesting stories about loss, grief, acceptance and fertility. Things that aren't spoken about, generally speaking, in the theatre much. It's incredibly touching.”

Helen says the show takes the audience on a journey: “It'll make you laugh and it'll make you cry. It's a really rewarding night out.

“It's set in a farmhouse in County Clare. I play a slightly wacky American Airbnb guest. The woman who owns the farmhouse is coping with her grief. She's mucked up the times on the Airbnb app, so she's ended up having another guest at the same time.

An unexpected person turns up, who turns everything on its head.”

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A prolific actor, Helen has numerous film and television credits including: Faithless, The Dry, Rebellion, The Borgias, Fair City, Veronica Guerin, and Ella Enchanted. As a stage actor she has worked with world class actors through her involvement with The Abbey and Barabbas The Company.

The transition between stage and screen has given the actor a tremendously versatile career: “I love both of them, but they're very different.

“The joyous thing about being in a play, you start at one point, and you know exactly the arc you're going on, and you know when you're finishing. When you're doing film or television you're probably filming out of sequence.

“You might start at the end of the story, so you have to work out what your character is going to do at the end before you can work out what's going to happen at the beginning. It's quite tricky

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“Whereas in the theatre we're on a different clock, we'll finish before ten, whatever it is. It's a different energy, it's a different way of being. They're both equally kind of joyous, or they can be,” Helen says.

This is not the accomplished actor's first time in Longford: “I have to say Backstage Theatre is one of my favourite places.

They always have brilliant audiences. And they give you sandwiches when you arrive.

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“It's really lovely, an incredibly comfortable and lovely place to be. So I'm really glad we're bringing the show there,” Helen concluded.

This beautiful play is full of hope, humour and humanity, in it a situation as unlikely as it is inevitable will send the four lives reeling, leaving them questioning the true nature of love, loss and birds.

The Loved Ones will be staged at Backstage Theatre, Longford, on Saturday, April 26 show starts at 8:00pm, tickets are €24/20.