Review quotations for The Donnelly Sideshow

“A tale of romance, feuds, conspiracy, and murder, navigated with energy and charm … illustrates why the legend of the Donnellys is so compelling”
- CBC Manitoba

“An inspired storyteller” – Edmonton Sun

 “Spins a great yarn”  - Saskatoon Star Phoenix

“Draws the audience in”  - Winnipeg Free Press

“A little creative masterpiece”
- View Magazine (Hamilton)

“A joy to watch”  - The Visitorium (Ottawa)

“Inspired”  - London Free Press

“The songs are fantastic”
- Culture Vulture (Victoria)

“Five Stars” - Vue Weekly (Edmonton)
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“An engaging, endearing storyteller”
- Uptown (Winnipeg)

“A masterfully woven tale of intrigue, humor,
music, and a dash of romance”
- Plank Magazine (Vancouver)
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THE DONNELLY SIDESHOW 
Romance, music and murder – the true story of one of Canada’s most famous feuds 
A solo performance, with songs, written and performed by Jeff Culbert
Directed by Jayson McDonald, Produced by Ausable Theatre (London Ontario)

Johnny O’Connor was the boy who hid under the bed during the Donnelly murders of 1880. Now he’s back, all grown up, packing a guitar and ready to set the record straight about the Donnellys.

 The Donnelly Sideshow is a true story of romance, faction fighting and murder set in rural Ontario during the 1870s and 80s. 130 years after five members of the Donnelly family were brutally murdered in their homes, the story continues to inspire artists and scholars and to fascinate the general public. In fact, the 1954 novel The Black Donnellys is still studied by students in Edmonton (but not, one would hope, as history).
 
The events occurred in and around Lucan Ontario (just outside of London), which is where writer-performer Jeff Culbert grew up.
 
One of the key characters in the Donnelly story is Johnny O’Connor, the 13-year-old boy who hid under a bed during the attack and witnessed the whole thing. In The Donnelly Sideshow, Jeff Culbert plays a grown-up Johnny O’Connor, who is out to tell the true story of the Donnellys. (Johnny was also a Lucan boy; in fact Jeff and Johnny grew up on the same street in the village.)
 
In the spirit of his mentor and hero Will Donnelly, Johnny doesn’t mind using a little showmanship, and in addition to the storytelling and dramatization, he sings four original songs about the feud. And in spite of the gruesome core of the story, he tries to tell it with good humour and spirit, because “you gotta keep up your ent’usiasm” or you’re finished. He is out to entertain, but also to find whatever form of justice he can salvage, seeing how the legal justice system failed the Donnellys so badly.
 
Background statement by Jeff Culbert 
My home town of Lucan Ontario is famous (or infamous) for the Donnelly murders of 1880, when five members of the Donnelly family were killed by their neighbours, none of whom was ever convicted for the crime.
 
I have several personal connections to the Donnelly story. My great-great grandparents, John and Mary Culbert, immigrated from County Tipperary, Ireland, to Biddulph Township, just north of London, in 1840. James and Johannah Donnelly made that same trip four years later. The family homesteads were about four kilometers apart, separated by the fields and the bush.
 
One of the key players in the Donnelly story is Johnny O’Connor, the 14-year-old boy from Lucan who was staying at the Donnelly homestead on the night of the murders. He was the only survivor of the attack on the house, and he lived to testify against the vigilantes in court.
 
I grew up in Lucan on the same street as Johnny O’Connor, just a stone’s throw away, 90 years later, and in The Donnelly Sideshow, I will be portraying a grown up Johnny O’Connor.
 
Origins of The Donnelly Sideshow 
Of course, I grew up with the Donnelly story, but when I directed The Donnelly Trial in 2005 (produced by Chris Doty and staged in the London courthouse, where the actual trials had taken place), my research pulled me deeper into the history. I started writing songs based on some of the more remarkable aspects of the Donnelly story, and this developed into a play with music.
 
The inspiration for the format of the show (and the title) was the fact that shortly after the Donnelly murders, a promoter almost succeeded in getting Will Donnelly, one of the surviving brothers, to tour the countryside along with Johnny O’Connor, so that they could tell their stories to a fascinated public. Music would be a part of the presentation too, putting Will’s talent as a fiddle player to use. But on the adamant advice of their lawyer, they turned down this offer, and the travelling Donnelly show never came to be.
 
But in the long run, there were no murder convictions and justice was not served, so my conceit for this play is that Johnny takes up his guitar when he is in his 50s and sets out to tell what happened using stories and songs, seeking some sort of poetic justice in light of the failure of the courts to achieve legal justice.
 
A CD of the four original songs in The Donnelly Sideshow will also be available.
 

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Father Connelly

Bob Donnelly - After the Trial

The Last Witness

Boney Crossing the Alps - full band

Boney Crossing the Alps - Live - solo