This story dramatises real and shocking events that took place in Tipperary, ireland in 1895.
Act i
Bridget and Michael meet as children and quickly form a bond. Both from unhappy households, they feel like outsiders in their own community.
One day they see Jack Dunne the local Seanachai. He is an irish storyteller and keeper of lore. He enchants and terrifies them with tales of the Sí, “People of the hollow hills” the underworld of Irish creatures. The sí are known sometimes kidnap people, leaving creatures in their place...changelings.
Michaels home is violent and chaotic and he begins to count on Bridget for the love and stability he cannot get from his family. They find a priest who is willing to marry them in secret, binding their hands, tying the knot in the old Celtic way.
Act ii
Bridget's father, Pat finally accepts their marriage, and Michael moves in them. When Bridget becomes sick both her Father and husband tend to her.
Jack Dunne visits and convinces the family that Bridget has been taken by the Sí to the hollow hills. They have been tending to a “thing”, a creature and a malevolent force within their own home. They now have 10 days to banish the changeling, before Bridget, their dear daughter and wife is lost forever.
They quickly begin performing ancient rituals on the changeling, each ritual more shocking than the last.
During all of this Michaels father passes away but Michael refuses to attend the funeral.
Act iii
Michaels mother visits the home, seeing that they have not been banishing a changeling but have instead been tormenting Bridget, a very sick woman. She soothes Bridget and tries to contain the situation. However her very presence stirs old wounds in Michael. That morning, Friday March the 15th, 1895 he burns his wife to death in front of her family.
World Synopsis
