ABSTRACT
The Charabanc Theatre Company drew its name from a benched open-air wagon used in Ireland early in the twentieth century for day trips. For the five out-of-work actresses who borrowed the term to name their newly formed company, ‘charabanc’ was chosen to connote a collective female endeavour with a good deal of humour thrown in. The company was formed in 1983 when Carol Scanlon, Eleanor Methven, Marie Jones, Maureen Macauley and Brender Winter, fed up with the paucity of good roles available for women in Northern Ireland, came together to create their own theatre. Their first play, Lay Up Your Ends (1983), about the 1911 strike of women mill workers in Belfast’s linen industry, was developed from research, community interviews and workshop material and scripted with the aid of Martin Lynch, an established playwright. So successful was this venture that the group were encouraged to apply their talents to further projects of its kind. In fairly rapid succession, they developed such ‘social history’ plays as Oul’ Delf and False Teeth (1984), focusing on market dealers hoping for post-war prosperity, Now You’re Talking (1985), about women in a ‘reconciliation centre’ dealing with sectarian issues, and Gold in the Streets (1986), three one-act plays tracing Irish emigration to England from early in the twentieth century. Later works included Weddins, Weeins and Wakes (1989) and The Blind Fiddler of Glenadauch (1990), as well as The Girls in the Big Picture (1987), an uncharacteristically rural drama focusing on the claustrophobic lives of three unmarried women in a small community.
