Whisk(e)y Wars – blending family treachery, religious hypocrisy, community secrets and the distilling of fine Irish whiskey (Eastside Arts Festival)

The water of life is can be earthy, elitist and trades of being finite. But it’s also the inspiration for Joyce Greenaway’s one-woman play about eight generations of the Tully family at the Kingdom of Mourne Distillery in Newcastle, County Down.

After generations of quiet success, the business faces infrastructural, financial, reputational and existential challenges. And on top of that, Covid is frustrating plans for recovery.

Tam Tully is the modern-day narrator of Whisk(e)y Wars, a self-confessed ‘difficult woman’ from a Brethren family who opens up the Tully’s whited sepulchre to reveal disappearing relatives, children born out of wedlock, and the story behind her name. The family tree is littered with Biblical names, and Biblical levels of betrayal and deceit. It’s only in recent years that women have taken back control of the family’s story, making the decisions, living up to the consequences of other people’s sins, and keeping the stills running.

Greenaway is quite the storyteller, holding the audience in the palm of her hand – like a glass of her precious elixir – as she weaves through the past and the present, in a tale that blends family treachery, religious hypocrisy, community secrets and the distilling of fine Irish whiskey. Other than a series of Brexit digs whose initial humour quickly becomes diluted, it’s a gripping performance that particularly suited last night’s venue, Titanic Distillers at Thompson Dock.

Whisk(e)y Wars was performed last night as part of Eastside Arts Festival. You can catch Whisk(e)y Wars in The Andersontown Social Club at 8pm on Thursday 1 August as part of Féile an Phobail as well as The Court House in Bangor at 7pm on Friday 2 (sold out) as part of Open House Festival.

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