Smock Alley Theatre Directed by J. R. Sullivan

10-15th May 2022

7.30pm Tues-Sat

Matinees 1.30pm Sat 14th and 3pm Sun 15th

https://smockalley.com/parcel-from-america/

Tickets :€18.00 – €20.00

Cast: Michael Grennell, Clare O’Malley, Ger Kelly, Emer Kelly, Alex Sharpe, Pat Nolan, Rose Henderson, Gerry Herbert, Aidan Jordan, and introducing Charlie Reid and Chloe Cody

Adapted from the story by TOMASEEN FOLEY

At Christmastime, more than the Christmas cards, more than all the symbols of Christmas, for me, growing up as a small boy in Teampall an Ghleanntain, the prime symbol of the Christmas season was the parcel from America.

Almost every family had a relative in America at this time, and those relatives would send home a parcel at Christmas to the family they had left so tearfully behind. And in that parcel would be clothing, often clothing that they themselves had worn in America over the previous year, and was of course all the more precious for that.

And very often, in with the clothing there would be an envelope stuffed with dollars. And I can tell you that for many families, more cash money and more clothing would come into the house in that parcel at Christmastime than in the course of the whole year that had preceded it. So that parcel was looked forward to with the same glee and anticipation by grown men and women as young children look forward to Santy Claus.

That parcel contained the gold, frankincense and myrrh from that fabled land across the sea: America.

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