Murphy's Law
BY LAURA FRIEL
Take the evening off. Get a babysitter. Cancel that cumann
meeting. Postpone that romantic dinner for two but if you get the
chance don't miss Murphy's Law, the latest offering from Just Us,
the West Belfast-based theatre company. The play's first run was
completed last week but due to popular demand the players have
promised the show will go on again in a few weeks time or during
the summer festival.
The hall, Amharclann na Carraige,
was packed for what was scheduled to be the last performance. I'd
arrived expecting a competent script and performance from players
whose previous record included Just a Prisoner's Wife and in
conjunction with Dubblejoint, Binlids and Forced Upon Us, but
nothing could have prepared me for the sheer delight of the
evening ahead.
Set in Ballymurphy in the early 1970s, the idea behind the
play is a smple one and the comedy is far from sophisticated but
The Hole in the Wall Gang'' must be eating their hearts out. Cast
in the same mould as the Wall Gang's brand of comedy, ``Murphy's
Law'' offers more than the political snigger. Here is the belly
laugh of a community at ease with itself, which knows its
weaknesses as well as its strengths and can live with both.
For over two hours we all roared with laughter. Fr Des Wilson,
sitting just in front of me, laughed so much he cried. A woman
two rows ahead couldn't stop chortling long enough to hear the
next joke and there was the heart of it. We were laughing at a
play which was inviting us to laugh at ourselves and we were
laughing at each other laughing.
Bobby Sands gave us a guideline against which to measure our
success when he wrote ``let our revenge be the laughter of our
children''. Well we aren't there yet but if Murphy's Law is
anything to go by, we're definitely on the right track.
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