Radio Play: Ella, Goddess Macha
Donation protected
Our team of three: Writer, Dorothea McDowell; Scriptwriter, Danny Brennan and Producer, Tony Phillips, reach out to you for radio production funds for "Ella, Goddess Macha" our radio play to be broadcast under the name Morrigan.
Ella Young the person is a revolutionary and a mystic, a Celtic mythological scholar and translator, a rebel and a druid priestess. From the moment Ella meets Macha in the Cave of the Red Steeds, she slowly shape-shifts melding into her goddess alter ego, into a parallel life full of mystery and enchantment. Her new powers curse her with insights and visions of the future, a “fourth dimension” with premonitions of the deaths of many of her friends.
Ella Young stands at the crux of history, a moment in time when Irish women and Irish men stood shoulder to shoulder as forgers of their nation’s destiny. Ella, The Countess Markievicz and Maud Gonne were complex powerful women. Morrigan resurrects women's protagonist roles in Ireland’s War of Independence telling their story through Ella’s eyes as she slowly transforms into Macha, crone Goddess of the Morrigan. Ella lived a life immersed in Irish culture, she taught mythology in Pádraig Pearse's school, St Enda’s. As a translator of Celtic mythology from Irish to English she became a referential voice in the Celtic cultural revival publishing books like The Unicorn with Silver Shoes and Celtic Wonder Tales and Other Stories (illustrated by Maud Gonne) and still in print almost 100 years later. Her wartime experiences were followed by decades of teaching mythology at the University of California at Berkeley but less is known of her earlier times in Ireland, her family’s role in WWI and her own role in the War of Independence.
By juxtaposing Celtic myth with the harsh reality of Irish history our play illuminates a world scorched by the Great War, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War through the lens of the fin-de-siecle Dublin Theosophical societies in the early 20th century. We follow Ella through her induction by Æ (George Russell), Maud Gonne, Yeats and The Countess as she becomes radicalised from her strict Antrim Presbyterian upbringing, through the fusion of her soul with Macha the crone goddess of The Morrigan. Smashing stereotypes of the Catholic Irish revolutionary, this play focuses on other rebels, pagan poets and playwrights in the Irish Cultural Revival.
The play is loosely based on Ella’s autobiography, “Flowering Dusk”, published in 1945, and Dorothea McDowell’s 2014 biography: “Ella Young and her World”. Through echoes, mirrors and parodies our play illuminates a world scorched by war through Ella’s eyes.
Ella as Macha is at once modern and ancient. She forges a thread through Irish revolutionary history; we follow her formative life experiences, heroic and mystical, through a world seething with ugliness and the horrors of the Great War and the seeds of the Irish Civil War to come. On an historic level our play introduces Ella between the years 1895-1925. We listen as Ella battles with becoming Macha, a dark changeling presence with ancient insights which transforms her being. Macha is the Washerwoman, the crone goddess of the Morrigan, guardian of the gateway between life and death.
This centenary of women's suffrage, the election of Countess Markievicz to parliament, as well the centenary of the War of Independence all make this story particularly topical. The play deals with the central role women played in preserving and revitalising the Irish language and culture. We present a feminist interpretation of the pivotal revolutionary years. Rather than glorify the blood sacrifices of young men we focus on the sacrifices made by women like Ella, The Countess and Maud Gonne reinstating their protagonist roles.
We thank you personally for every penny!
Ella Young the person is a revolutionary and a mystic, a Celtic mythological scholar and translator, a rebel and a druid priestess. From the moment Ella meets Macha in the Cave of the Red Steeds, she slowly shape-shifts melding into her goddess alter ego, into a parallel life full of mystery and enchantment. Her new powers curse her with insights and visions of the future, a “fourth dimension” with premonitions of the deaths of many of her friends.
Ella Young stands at the crux of history, a moment in time when Irish women and Irish men stood shoulder to shoulder as forgers of their nation’s destiny. Ella, The Countess Markievicz and Maud Gonne were complex powerful women. Morrigan resurrects women's protagonist roles in Ireland’s War of Independence telling their story through Ella’s eyes as she slowly transforms into Macha, crone Goddess of the Morrigan. Ella lived a life immersed in Irish culture, she taught mythology in Pádraig Pearse's school, St Enda’s. As a translator of Celtic mythology from Irish to English she became a referential voice in the Celtic cultural revival publishing books like The Unicorn with Silver Shoes and Celtic Wonder Tales and Other Stories (illustrated by Maud Gonne) and still in print almost 100 years later. Her wartime experiences were followed by decades of teaching mythology at the University of California at Berkeley but less is known of her earlier times in Ireland, her family’s role in WWI and her own role in the War of Independence.
By juxtaposing Celtic myth with the harsh reality of Irish history our play illuminates a world scorched by the Great War, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War through the lens of the fin-de-siecle Dublin Theosophical societies in the early 20th century. We follow Ella through her induction by Æ (George Russell), Maud Gonne, Yeats and The Countess as she becomes radicalised from her strict Antrim Presbyterian upbringing, through the fusion of her soul with Macha the crone goddess of The Morrigan. Smashing stereotypes of the Catholic Irish revolutionary, this play focuses on other rebels, pagan poets and playwrights in the Irish Cultural Revival.
The play is loosely based on Ella’s autobiography, “Flowering Dusk”, published in 1945, and Dorothea McDowell’s 2014 biography: “Ella Young and her World”. Through echoes, mirrors and parodies our play illuminates a world scorched by war through Ella’s eyes.
Ella as Macha is at once modern and ancient. She forges a thread through Irish revolutionary history; we follow her formative life experiences, heroic and mystical, through a world seething with ugliness and the horrors of the Great War and the seeds of the Irish Civil War to come. On an historic level our play introduces Ella between the years 1895-1925. We listen as Ella battles with becoming Macha, a dark changeling presence with ancient insights which transforms her being. Macha is the Washerwoman, the crone goddess of the Morrigan, guardian of the gateway between life and death.
This centenary of women's suffrage, the election of Countess Markievicz to parliament, as well the centenary of the War of Independence all make this story particularly topical. The play deals with the central role women played in preserving and revitalising the Irish language and culture. We present a feminist interpretation of the pivotal revolutionary years. Rather than glorify the blood sacrifices of young men we focus on the sacrifices made by women like Ella, The Countess and Maud Gonne reinstating their protagonist roles.
We thank you personally for every penny!
Organizer
Dorothea Mcdowell
Organizer
