THE DEATH OF THE DONNELLYS

by Ted Johns

Director .............................................. Ted Johns
Assistant Director (music, songs, dance, fights) ...... Chris Royal

          The Donnellys

Jim ................................................... Milan Kaplan
Julia, his wife ....................................... Štěpánka Jirešová
Their children: William ............................... Ondřej Schneider
	John .................................................. Don Sparling
	Jenny ................................................. Markéta Stinglova
	Bob ................................................... Jakub Kučera
	Tom ................................................... Jaroslav Daniel
	Jim Jr. ............................................... Jan Tilšer
	Patrick ............................................... Přemysl Dohnal
	Michael ............................................... Aleš Rumpel
Their niece: Bridgett ................................. Dita Dvořáková

          The others

Uncle Orlo ............................................ Don Sparling, HGD
Pat Farrell ........................................... Jaroslav Daniel
Patrick Flannigan, Grouchie Ryder, Everett ............ Jan Tilšer
William Porte, McKellar ............................... Vladimír Šída
Tulip Porte, Annie Heenan ............................. Dita Dvořáková
John Kennedy .......................................... Milan Pavlas
Maggie Thompson, first woman,
   Grouchie's barn monologue .......................... Zdeňka Brandejská
Mary Thompson, second woman ........................... Markéta Stinglová 
Buggy Thompson, Ed, Henry ............................. Přemysl Dohnal 
William Thompson, Hawkshaw, pyromaniac, Potter ........ Don Sparling 
Murray, Berryhill ..................................... Aleš Rumpel 
Stagecoach passenger, Grouchie's barn monologue ....... Kateřina Chalupová 
Stagecoach passenger .................................. Štěpánka Jirešová
Mr Heenan ............................................. Milan Kaplan 
James Carroll ......................................... Jakub Kučera 
Horses: .............................. Milan Kaplan, Dita Dvořáková
                                       Zdeňka Brandejská, Markéta Stinglová

           Musicians

Jana Konečná, violin Milan Pavlas, guitar Jakub Kučera, guitar

           Stage Managers

Martina Drnková, Adéla Bódiová

Thanks go to the Janáček Theatre, the Canadian government, Masaryk University English Department, the Cikháj centre, and all Gypsywood Players past and present.

The Legendary Donnellys

Early in the morning of 4 February 1880 near the village of Lucan in southern Ontario, a party of armed men acting as vigilantes brutally murdered a local farmer, James (Jim) Donnelly, his wife Julia, their sons Thomas and John, and their niece Bridgett Donnelly. Two eye-witnesses claimed to have identified six of the murderers, who were subsequently brought to trial in nearby London, Ontario. The case became an international sensation, especially as the background to the deaths became known. For it was revealed that the murder of Jim Donnelly and his family was in fact the climax to more than three decades of escalating violence. The countryside round Lucan was divided into two bitterly opposed factions, with the Donnellys and their supporters on one side, and a large group of "respectable citizens", the friends of Pat Farrell and his family, on the other. This feud - a vendetta that some claim had its roots back in Ireland, where many of the local people had originally come from - had claimed a heavy toll in lives and property: accidental and not so accidental deaths, stagecoaches smashed and horses mutilated, houses, factories, barns and stables burned down. Over the years, many people in Lucan and the surrounding district had decided that the tight-knit Donnelly family was the ultimate cause of all the disorder, and in the end had turned against them. The degree to which the community hated the Donnellys could be seen in the course of the two trials that followed the massacre: in the first, the jury disagreed; in the second, they brought in a verdict of "not guilty". No one was ever sentenced for the murders.

Right from the beginning, the Donnelly story excited interest and controversy. It soon entered into the realm of folklore, and for more than a century the Donnellys have been a vivid and troubling presence in Canada's popular culture. In recent years alone, more than 100 factual and fictional accounts of the story have appeared. These have included at least three plays, the first of them being Them Donnellys, a collective production conceived and directed by Paul Thompson at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille, one of Canada's leading experimental theatres, in 1974 and 1975. In 1979 this was rewritten by Ted Johns as The Death of the Donnellys and presented to great acclaim at the summer festival in Blyth, a town in southern Ontario not far from the scene of the events it describes.

Act I of the play centres on the Donnelly family itself and its place in the town of Lucan. We see the family of eight children growing up without their father Jim, who is away in Kingston Prison serving his seven-year sentence for the murder of Pat Farrell. Only the determination of their mother, Julia, holds the family together till Jim returns. But by this time the Donnelly boys have become used to "raising a little hell" from time to time, and the town of Lucan is growing weary of their wild behaviour and outrageous practical jokes. It takes all of Jim's authority as father to keep them under control, and within the bounds of the law. The cleverest and most ambitious of the brothers is Will, who aims to get ahead by purchasing a stagecoach line. He hopes his old sweetheart, Maggie Thompson, will marry him despite her father's opposition to the match, and he arranges for them to elope during the chivaree being held to mark her brother William's marriage. But at the chivaree - a mock, noisy celebration for newly-weds - things get out of hand: the high spirits of the Donnellys and their friends, fueled by alcohol, lead to the virtual demolition of the house, Will gets hopelessly drunk, Maggie leaves him in disgust, and the evening ends in brutality and despair.

The darkening tone of the play continues in Act II. Will goes ahead and acquires a stagecoach line, and the competition between him and Flannigan, the owner of a rival line, leads to an increasingly vicious cycle of mutual acts of violence. By now things have got completely out of hand. The next weapon to be employed is fire: ninety-eight cases of proven arson in two years. The whole community slowly becomes embittered: even a wedding celebration ends in brawling and destruction. Finally a small group of determined citizens sets up a semi-secret committee whose sole aim is to put an end to the Donnelly menace. Every means is tried: court cases whose costs slowly ruin the family; planted evidence; pressure from the local Catholic priest; various forms of intimidation and violence against the Donnellys' friends. But the Donnelly family remains united and unbeaten, and finally the committee decides there is only one way of ridding the community of them. One night, armed with guns, clubs and pitchforks, they enter Jim and Julia's house and murder them, their son Tom and their niece Bridgett in cold blood. After setting fire to the dwelling, they move on to Will's house, where they manage to shoot John, thinking he is their arch-enemy Will. The Donnelly family has finally been silenced.

Ted Johns was born and raised on a farm near Clinton, in southern Ontario. After studies at the University of Toronto (BA and MA), he taught at Brock University in St Catherine's, Ontario, before beginning his career as an actor and playwright. He has written a number of plays and one-man shows and toured extensively throughout Canada, with occasional productions in the USA and Britain. This production of Death of the Donnellys has generated considerable interest within both the Actors' Union and the Playwrights' Union in Canada.

Chris Royal comes originally from Toronto; presently he lives in Vancouver. He studied classical theatre for three years at George Brown Theatre School in Toronto and has worked for two seasons at the Shaw Summer Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, as well as at a number of other theatres. This is his first trip abroad and he is delighted to be in Brno.