New life is breathed into old Parker plays

Theatre & Arts

Friday, May 02, 2008

The past is always with us — it's in the air we breathe. So says Frank Stock, staunch hero of Stewart Parker's Spokesong, which is enjoying a wonderful revival, along with the playwright's last work, Pentecost.

Parker's dramas bring an astonishing immediacy to the past — indeed, Spokesong could have been written today, so current are its themes of regeneration and preservation.

Both plays are being performed in the Northern Bank building in Belfast's Waring Street — another example of the past rubbing shoulders with the present — in The Parker Project, a co-production between the Lyric Theatre and Rough Magic in Dublin.

Parker's niece Lynne directs both plays, which feature delightful performances from actors of the calibre of Ali White, Marty Rea, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Eleanor Methven and Dan Gordon, to name just a few.

Parker's claim to the title of Belfast's best playwright remains intact through this wonderful event, and the plays — both set in 1974, and performed in a new era of co-operation — show the city in the worst and the best of times.

Another local playwright, although one who tends to be forgotten by theatre-goers, is George Shiels, described as a 'Marie Jones for the early 20th century'.

Just Shiels is a new play which examines his forgotten work. Written and directed by local dramatist Brenda Winter, it is based on detailed research of his work, correspondence and the never-before- heard testimonies of the woman who knew him best.

To the people of his native Ballymoney he was just the man in the wheelchair who ran the grocery shop on Main Street. However, George Shiels wrote more than 30 plays and Hollywood clambered to option his work. His plays were performed regularly at Belfast's Group Theatre, and almost single- handedly kept the doors of the Abbey Theatre open during the 1920s and 30s, making him the darling of Dublin audiences.

However, today he is only remembered by a few fervent enthusiasts within the amateur drama movement and by those academics who have now re-discovered his work.

Brenda needs no introduction to audiences here — she's been at the forefront of innovative drama here for more than 30 years, as an actor, director and writer. A founder member of the groundbreaking Charabanc Theatre Company in the early 80s, she went on to found Replay, our wonderful theatre-in-education company.

Now, she is making history at Queen's as the first person to undertake a practice-as-research doctorate turning two years of rigorous research into a theatrical examination of Shiels's work and the man behind the typewriter.

Just Shiels was premeired in the Queen's studio Theatre in Belfast this week, and there must surely be plans to bring the play to Hollywood, home of the humble grocer who brought so much joy into many lives here.

Now, from past pleasures to future delights. This Year's Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is open for business, with more treats than a box of Dairy Milk.

Tomorrow night, catch Shaz and Taz in The Break-up in White's Tavern.

Taz is a professional (rather pretentious) actress. When old friend Shaz decides to pay her a little visit, the pair relive a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows.

Or book yourself a seat for the fabulously titled I Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath at OMAC.

Edward Anthony's moving and darkly funny new play uses a talking oven, a cooking show, and the last ten seconds in the life of a suicidal housewife to shed new light on one of the most controversial literary icons of the 20th century. What's not to like there?

The Lady of Burma is on stage at the Northern Bank on Sunday. This inspirational show has already sold out at Edinburgh Festival and the Old Vic in London. It tells the inspirational true story of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is being held a political prisoner.

Despite being head of the democratically-elected political party, Burma's military junta have kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for over a decade.

Still to come — Jim Cartwright's Two and Woody Sez. And there's a new production of Joyriders on offer — see that? Another little bit of the past muscling in on the present. Parker was right. It's everywhere.