Dolly West’s Kitchen

by Frank McGuinness

Directed by Steven Adams

Audition Date

Sunday 29th November 2026, 7pm

Production Dates

2nd - 6th March 2027
Evening performances: 2nd - 6th March 2027
Matinee Performance: 6th March 2027

Rehearsals

Bar/Outside Rehearsals: 3 - 24 Jan 2027 (3 weeks - days and times to be confirmed)
Stage Rehearsals: 31 Jan - 1 March 2027 (4 weeks – probably Sunday afternoons and Mon, Weds, Fri evenings)

If you are unable to make the audition date and for more information and audition pieces, please contact Steven on stevenadams1969@gmail.com

Secrets, Passions, and Politics Simmer in One Irish Kitchen

Set in the coastal town of Buncrana during the Second World War, Dolly West’s Kitchen is Frank McGuinness’s heartfelt and witty exploration of family, love, and loyalty in turbulent times. In Dolly’s kitchen, meals are served with equal helpings of laughter, longing, and sharp-tongued debate, as her family wrestles with the personal and political battles brought to their doorstep.

When American soldiers arrive in town, new opportunities — and new tensions — bubble to the surface. Alliances are tested, forbidden desires spark, and the clash between tradition and change threatens to boil over. Both intimate and epic, McGuinness’s play blends humour, heartbreak, and humanity, creating a portrait of ordinary lives caught up in the extraordinary sweep of history.

A story of courage, passion, and the complicated bonds of family, Dolly West’s Kitchen invites us to ask: what would you sacrifice for love, for country, and for yourself?

Please do not be out off by the accent requirements. Although it will be great if you can attempt the accent for audition, help will be given at rehearsals.
Playing ages are just a guide.

BLT actively encourages auditionees from ethnic minority communities and any of the below parts could be played by any race.

You do not have to be a member of the company to audition, but if you are cast you must join.

Characters

Dolly West - Dolly is the central figure of the household: unmarried, educated and well-travelled, having spent years in Italy before returning to Buncrana when war broke out. She now runs the West household and kitchen. Dolly is strong-minded, intelligent and emotionally guarded, but her former relationship with Alec Redding remains important. She often appears the stabilising force in a family full of competing passions and loyalties. Female presenting. Playing age 35–50. Irish accent

Rima West - Rima is Dolly, Esther and Justin’s mother, and one of the play’s great comic roles. Widowed, unconventional, irreverent and very sharp, she delights in unsettling her children and ignoring respectable behaviour. She is also shrewder than she first appears and understands much about the emotional lives of those around her. Female presenting. Playing age 65–80+. Irish Accent

Esther Horgan - Esther is Dolly’s older sister and Ned’s wife. She is trapped in an unhappy marriage and feels constrained by duty and convention. Beneath her outwardly respectable life sits considerable frustration and longing. Her attraction to the American soldier Jamie becomes one of the play’s important emotional threads. Female presenting. Playing age 38–50. Irish Accent

Ned Horgan - Ned is Esther’s husband. Ned belongs to the domestic West household and his strained marriage to Esther helps expose the gap between conventional appearances and private unhappiness. Male presenting. 40–55. Irish Accent

Justin West - Justin is Dolly and Esther’s younger brother and a junior officer in the Irish Army. Fiercely nationalist and strongly anti-British, he initially reacts with hostility to the Allied soldiers crossing the border from Derry. His certainty about politics and masculinity is challenged, however, when he becomes attracted to Marco. Justin therefore has one of the play’s most significant personal transformations. Male presenting. Playing age 25–40. Irish Accent

Anna Owens - Anna is the West family’s maid. She is younger, lively and sexually uninhibited, and brings another perspective to the household. She is attracted to the American servicemen and contributes to the play’s atmosphere of wartime liberation and changing social expectations. Female presenting. Playing age 18–35. Irish Accent

Alec Redding - Alec is an English officer stationed across the border in Derry and Dolly’s former lover from their college days. Their relationship is unresolved, and his presence brings both Dolly’s personal past and the political tension between Britain and neutral Ireland into the kitchen. Male presenting. Playing age 35–50. English Accent

Marco Delavicario - Marco is an American GI stationed in Derry and Jamie’s cousin. Marco is openly gay, flamboyant, witty and very confident in his identity. His encounter with the fiercely nationalist and initially prejudiced Justin develops into a relationship, challenging Justin’s assumptions about sexuality, masculinity and himself. Male presenting. Playing age 25–35. American Accent

Jamie O’Brien - Jamie is Marco’s Irish-American cousin and fellow American soldier. He is the more conventionally masculine of the two Americans and becomes involved with Esther, offering her a glimpse of the emotional and sexual freedom missing from her marriage. Male presenting. Playing age 25–35. American Accent