The Turn of the Road A Play in Two Scenes and an Epilogue

In a modest kitchen on a summer evening in County Down, a farmer’s family gathers around the glowing turf fire. Mrs. Granahan worries about her son Robbie’s endless fiddling, while her daughter Ellen quietly champions his musical gift. Their grandfather, a pipe‑smoking presence, offers gentle counsel, and the daily rhythm of farm life drifts through the conversation—cattle wandering, a neighbor’s complaints, and the hopeful chatter about a creamery contract.

The play captures the tension between tradition and aspiration, as the household balances the practical demands of farming with the stirrings of artistic ambition. Robbie’s reluctant steps between music and duty, the parents’ pragmatic concerns, and the simmering community disputes provide a warm, slice‑of‑life portrait of rural Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. Listeners will feel the crackle of the hearth, hear the faint strains of a fiddle, and be drawn into the family’s quiet struggles and quiet joys.