Mephisto Theatre Group is staging the play The Mai in the Town Hall Theatre for nine nights later this month.

The Mai, by Marina Carr, is a play about love. It focuses on four generations of women from one family who struggle to come to terms with the destructive effects their love affairs have on themselves, and those around them.

The story centres on The Mai, played by Caroline Lynch (Mephisto) and her husband Robert, played by Liam O’Brien (Bottom Dog, Emmerdale) a beguiling cello composer. Around them gather her relatives – the ‘Connemara Clique’ – headed by opium-smoking, oar-wielding Grandma Fraochlán (Margaret O’Sullivan).

These women are unimpressed when Robert returns after a long absence. But The Mai can’t help surrendering to the passions of her tumultuous marriage, observed by her 16-year-old daughter Millie, played by Grace Kiely (Moonfish, Fíbín) who learns all about the punch that crazy love can pack.

This award-winning play is sensual, potent and bitterly funny. It is written by one of Ireland’s most popular and gifted modern playwrights and performed by a dynamic cast of the best local and national talent.

Since 2006, Galway-based Mephisto have produced high-quality shows throughout Ireland and the UK, including The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy; The Morning After Optimism by Tom Murphy and Grenades by Tara McKevitt.

The Mai marks the company’s 20th production and follows the successful run of The Honey Spike by Bryan MacMahon at the Town Hall Theatre last year.

The cast features Siobhán Donnellan, Helen Gregg, Grace Kiely, Caroline Lynch, Liam O'Brien, Frieda McGrath, Mary McHugh and Margaret O’Sullivan. The play is directed by Róisín Stack and produced by Emma O’Grady, with lighting design by Mike O’Halloran and musical direction by Béibhinn O’Connor.

The show runs at the Town Hall from Thursday August 16 to Saturday August 25 (excluding Sunday August 19) at 8pmo each day.