the enemy within

Written By: Brian Friel
Directed By: Paula McFetridge
Premiered at the inaugural Lughnasa International Friel Festival, August 2015

First staged in 1962, The Enemy Within is Friel’s fictional account of the voluntary exile of Columba. Set in Iona, where Columba lived for 34 years following his departure from Ireland in 563, it concentrates on the private man, a charismatic, worldly personality who struggled to combine the skills of scholar, bard and ruler with his fearless commitment to his vocation.

Kabosh staged a series of rehearsed readings of Friel’s first play in the historic Pobail Teach Naomh Colmcille (St. Columba’s Church), located in the beautiful setting of Glencolmcille, and featuring 10 of Northern Ireland’s most prominent actors, as part of the inaugural Lughnasa Frielfest programme. Most recently in August 2019 a reading was performed as part of Lughnasa fest with an all female cast

Produced in partnership with Arts Over Borders.

The power of the script-in-hand production is further energised, between the acts, by Ruby Philogene’s haunting renditions of spirituals.

The Guardian
an extraordinary performance and particularly because it is a discursive play of ideas and to be able to bring the human and the emotional to it is a credit to the company and the actors.

Audience Feedback
The setting and acting all superb and yet humble at the same time too. Moving play and performance, thank you.

Audience Feedback
The staged reading demonstrates once again, as Kabosh does so effectively, that theatre knows no boundary and that thinking and living outside the box can produce magical moments in "out of the box" settings

Audience Feedback

CREATIVE TEAM

2015 Cast:
Peter Ballance

James Doran

Thomas Finnegan

Vincent Higgins

Gerard Jordan

Terence Keeley

Frank McCusker

Noel McGee

Seamus O'Hara

Lalor Roddy

Costume Designer Liz Cullinane

Technical Manager JP Conaghan

Stage Manager Donal McKendry

Producer Zoe Fox and Edel Murphy

Assistant Producer Dominic Montague

2019 Cast:
Columba: Abigail McGibbon

Caornan: Libby Smith

Oswald: Clare McMahon

Brian: Bernadette Brown

Grillaan: Eleanor Methven

Aedh: Maria Quinn

Diarmuid: Antoinette Morelli

Dochonna: Carol Moore

Brendan: Kerri Quinn

Eoghan: Andrea Irvine

Singer: Ruby Philogene

Stage Manager: Sophie Thompson

Costume Design: Liz Cullinane

PAST PERFORMANCES

Produced in 2019 with special permission from the Friel Estate for an all-female cast
St Columba's Church, Omagh
All Saints Clooney Church, Derry
St Mary's Chapel, Derry
Revived Arts Over Borders FrielFest 11th - 14th August 2017: St Marys Chapel, Knockmoyle, Omagh; and St Columba's Church, Long Tower, Derry
Performed 21st and 22nd August 2015 in Pobail Teach Naomh Colmcille (St. Columba’s Church), Gelncolmcille, Donegal
Performed 29th August 2015 at First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast.

Funded by

the enemy within

The power of the script-in-hand production is further energised, between the acts, by Ruby Philogene’s haunting renditions of spirituals.

an extraordinary performance and particularly because it is a discursive play of ideas and to be able to bring the human and the emotional to it is a credit to the company and the actors.

The setting and acting all superb and yet humble at the same time too. Moving play and performance, thank you.

The staged reading demonstrates once again, as Kabosh does so effectively, that theatre knows no boundary and that thinking and living outside the box can produce magical moments in "out of the box" settings

CREATIVE TEAM

PAST PERFORMANCES

2019

2017

2015

A Bellaghy Tale

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