Dan Gordon wrote and starred in The Boat Factory, a moving play about workers in the shipyards in East Belfast. Michael Condron delivered a fantastic array of accents, and the chemistry between the two actors was fizzing. A play starring only two people can get slightly dull and drag, but The Boat Factory was fast-paced, funny, and left you knowing an awful lot more about Belfast’s history.
BY EMMA GALLEN Continue reading
The recent Belfast Festival at Queen’s has seen a diverse range of attractions organised throughout its two week period, none more eye-catching or entertaining than the Catalyst Arts: Gaming exhibition, which provided the public with the opportunity to come along free of charge and relax with a variety of retro games. SignificantlY, Catalyst Arts is a non-profit, members-based organisation, and with a £10 subscription comes some degree of influence in the group’s running. The Catalyst Arts: Gaming show was accessible free of charge to all members of the public. This, and the fact that it was run on a volunteer basis, gave the exhibition a veritable sense of charm from the offset.
BY JAMES DOUGLAS
This year’s Belfast Festival saw the QFT focus upon ‘movies, myths and music’, screening film portrayals of iconic figures such as Ian Dury, John Lennon and Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. Control, directed by Anton Corbijn, dramatises the latter’s brief career and suicide at the age of twenty-three, while Jon Savage’s documentary Joy Division features archival footage of the band as well as interviews with its surviving members.
BY MATTHEW MISKIMMIN
The Empire was a beautiful setting for Josh Ritter’s performance with the Love Canon String Band. Lining up on the steps in the rain, the first people in the queue rushed to claim the balcony seats and the tables. Josh Ritter is an artist I highly recommend seeing live, one of the most noticeable aspects of his performance is his sheer happiness to be there. He struggles to conceal his grins and smiles as he sings, plays and performs. It is a pleasure to watch his laughter and excitement; it is infectious and made me equally happy to be there. Josh’s bass player Zach Hickman told us that, in fact, the Love Canon String Band is not real, it was dreamt up over 40 beers apiece, and the only times they have played before this tour was at Ritter family wedding functions!
BY FIONA MCCALLION
The Irish Premiere of Russian playwright Vassily Sigarev, translated into English by Sasha Dugdale, Black Milk is a dark comedy set in the a small train station in the Russian wilderness. The translation fits so easy into an Irish context showing the everyday struggle to survive in tough economic times, and it’s that spirit that our audience best relates and responds to. While the characters speak in Northern Irish accents, the voice of the play is Russian as they show the selfishness and exploitation of the country and how it will affect society and the lives of their children.
BY BRIAN SWANN
The Spielgeltent in Belfast’s Custom House Square played host to David Ireland’s relentlessly witty play, ‘What the animals say’, on Sunday night and in truth contributed partly to the two-man show’s unquestionable success. Not one for grand theatres or opera houses, ‘What the animals say’ revelled in the easy, intimate charm of the continental Spiegeltent without ever relying on it too heavily. A play centring on the awkward reunion of two Protestant schoolmates (one a boisterous footballer for Celtic and the other a struggling actor) whilst waiting for a homebound ferry in Stranraer, Ireland’s gem wastes no time in assuming a breakneck speed, which it upholds throughout.
BY GAVIN BRADLEY
Previously described as both “gripping” and “grotesque”, Mark O’Rowe’s latest production ‘Terminus’ surely lives up to its reputation. Three inter-cutting and connecting monologues spoken by a trio of characters merely designated as A, B and C, come together as the ordinary turns extraordinary. An Abbey Theatre Commission, Terminus is a supernatural narrative told by three characters: a lonesome young woman looking for love; her mother, who is seeking atonement; and a serial killer who has sold his soul to the Devil. These three inter cutting and connecting monologues are spoken by a trio of characters merely designated as A, B and C.
BY CONNOR DALY