Welcome to Ballyrowan. This sleepy corner of Ireland may seem tranquil but scratch the surface
and you'll find a hotbed of gossip and intrigue - endless material for mouthing - and a town
full of people only too happy to oblige in spreading the bad news. Narrated by several
generations of villagers Mouthing traces the misadventures of one small community from the
mid-20th century to the early 21st in a series of highly confessional darkly humorous sharply
observed monologues. These are people who delight in twisting the knife perfecting the art of
schadenfreude over many decades. And it becomes clear none of them are entirely reliable
witnesses. As each one tells their version of events revealing contradictory versions of 'the
truth' we see how feuds are passed down through the generations how families are estranged or
reunited and fortunes made or lost how strict social expectations can shift and loosen over
time (and how some things remain stubbornly unchanged). Mouthing is an acerbic unsentimental
love letter to rural Ireland where everyone knows everyone else's business and everyone has an
opinion on it - where 'community' is both a lifeboat and a life sentence.
