Street theatre event aims to bring 'heart and character' back to Connaught Street

Connaught Street was alive once more on Sunday, August 24, as laughter and chatter filled The Hollow at Connaught Gardens.

More than seventy people gathered on the grass of The Hollow at Connaught Gardens, to watch Broderick’s Women, a street theatre performance staged by Athlone Little Theatre as part of National Heritage Week.

The stage was set in what was once a canal bed, a waterway that once brought great prosperity to the Athlone street. Now dried out, The Hollow is now being envisaged as a key space for intergenerational events such as Sunday’s performance.

The short piece, directed by Chrissie Killian and narrated by Billy Nott, drew from Athlone native John Broderick’s second novel The Fugitive. It centered on the sharp-tongued friendship and rivalry of Mrs Langan, played by Olive Martin, and Mrs Fallon, played by Doreen Holloway, two characters who displayed the reality of the lives of women in provincial 1940s and 1950s Ireland.

Author and historian Gearoid O’Brien, who adapted the chapters for stage, chose the story deliberately to reflect John Broderick’s deep ties to Connaught Street. The performance stood both as a tribute to Broderick’s legacy and as a reminder of the street’s once-vibrant spirit, with hope for its renewal.

“I have known Connaught Street for over 60 years,” O’Brien told the crowd. “It has been a victim of poor planning and the shopping centre culture, which has robbed the town of much of its heart and character. But I still firmly believe in Connaught Street, and in the vibrant group working for its regeneration.”

For narrator Billy Nott, Broderick was Athlone’s own James Joyce, an observer who turned the everyday lives and gossip of Connaught Street into literature that put the town on the map. By bringing his characters back onto the very street that inspired them, Sunday’s performance was both a celebration and a reclamation of the wonder the street has to offer.

"The one author who has done more than any other to immortalise Connaught Street is John Broderick," Mr Nott said. "Just last year we celebrated his centenary of his birth. His books are still being read and reproduced as far as America, and yet at times here in Athlone, we seem to just take him for granted. He was one of the great provincial writers of the 20th century, and he celebrated Athlone just as James Joyce celebrated Dublin."

As the actors brought to life women whose quiet struggles spoke volumes about their time, the audience responded with hearty laughter and knowing smiles, leaning into stories that reflected their own community.

To see the injection of life and colour back into this once thriving street brought a moment of joy and hope to all those in attendance, and will perhaps act as a spark to ignite greater regeneration works in the area.