Several farmers are part of an acclaimed play bringing much-needed comedy to Co Mayo this January.

The Acorn Players, based in Mohill in Co Leitrim, will head out on the road to stage Loophole by John McManus in the Town Hall Theatre, Westport, on 24 January.

Philip Flood takes centre stage as Cass, with James Grimes, a full-time dairy farmer from Dromard, reprising his role as Rooster, and Padraig McLoughlin, also a farmer, playing Paidí.

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Remarkably, nearly all of the cast share a farming background, bringing authenticity to the rural themes that drive the hilarious play.

For James Grimes, swapping the milking parlour for the stage is not as unusual as it might sound. But this return has special meaning: he underwent treatment for prostate cancer recently and is grateful to be stepping back into the limelight.

“It’s a privilege to be on stage again, doing what I love and hearing an audience laugh,” he says.

“The humour in Loophole comes from the very real issues and personality clashes you see every day on the farm and in the parish.

"From arguments over land to the price of cattle, it’s all there. Playing Rooster gives me a chance to laugh at the world I’m living in every day.”

Neighbours

Written by Cavan playwright John McManus, Loophole is a side-splitting comedy centring on two neighbours, Paidí and Cass, who devise a scheme to exploit a tax loophole to transfer land without paying taxes.

Trouble begins when Paidí’s mischievous brother Rooster and Kasia, a sharp-witted Polish engineer posing as a “lady of the night”, enter the picture. The result is a comedy of trickery and rural mischief that echoes classics such as The Field, but with sharper, more-modern wit.

At its heart are farming families, land disputes and the lengths people will go to protect their heritage, all themes rural dwellers can identify with.

“There’s plenty of drama on a dairy farm already, but stepping on stage and hearing an audience roar with laughter is a different kind of satisfaction,” says James Grimes.

First staged in 2018, Loophole was a sell-out hit across the country before being halted by the pandemic.

It has already played to great acclaim over its autumn comeback this year in Carrigallen, Ballinamore and Manorhamilton in Leitrim before hitting Claremorris, Co Mayo, in November.