Republican News · Thursday 12 December 2002

Blanket drama a winner

Prelude to '81

Written by Rosaleen Walsh

Directed by Jack Moylett

Starring Paul Ward and Roisin O'Reilly

The director of the Transatlantic Theatre Company, Jack Moylett, has an interesting story about his current play's debut in Dublin.

It seems when the company first approached Liberty Hall about staging the piece, they were met with nothing but enthusiasm. Moylett, delighted by the response, inquired as to whether the Liberty Hall committee might waive the rental fee for the theatre or at least give some sort of discount as, he explained, his group was not funded.

Again the response was positive. "Send along the details," he was told. "We'll put it to the committee. I'm sure we can work something out."

So Moylett sent along a brief write-up about "Prelude to '81", a play about the life in the H Blocks of Long Kesh and the cells in Armagh just prior to the hunger strikes.

The play, written by West Belfast author Rosaleen Walsh, depicts 24 hours in the lives of one male H-Block blanketman and one Armagh blanketwoman. It is a poetic and beautifully written piece, based partially on some of Walsh's own experiences.

When director Moylett next contacted Liberty Hall, he was received with a sudden bout of amnesia. "Oh yes Jack. What was it we spoke about? What play was that again?"

Moylett got the brush off several times, but he persevered and pressed for an answer. Would the committee waive the theatre rental fee? After much evasion the answer finally came.

"No," he was told.

"So they won't waive the fee?"

"Um, no... they don't want the play at all. They don't think the theatre is suitable."

Regardless, the show did go on.

The company ended up performing the piece at the Vietnamese Centre in Hardwicke Street, to a standing ovation and a clearly moved audience, many of whom were left in tears. Afterwards, several members of the crowd dropped extra donations into the admission box - including €100 or €50 bills, and one man inquired as to whether the group was funded. Moylett told him they were not. "Well you should be," said the man, shoving a folded bill into the box.

The play runs about an hour and ten minutes and takes the audience through one day in the lives of Liam and Roisin - two republican prisoners on the blanket protest.

It opens with Liam narrating a letter to his wife Kate. He begins with a poem lamenting their separation: "If I could travel through the night, or be myself unseen..." he recites.

Alone in his H-Block cell, naked and covered only in two grey blankets, his longing and passion for his love is one of the few things that sustain him. Liam is played brilliantly by Dublin actor Paul Ward, whose performance is as passionate and committed as the character himself. He is spellbinding to watch.

"It's an amazing transformation," says Moylett. "At first, we see this wretched creature but when he speaks, he becomes an angel."

The play then moves to a cell in Armagh jail and Roisin - a young woman also on the blanket. She speaks of the deprivation and isolation of the protest, but does so with an absolute inner strength and resolve. Throughout the play it becomes very clear to the audience that she, like Liam, will never yield to the prison regieme that seeks to break her and her comrades and criminalise the republican struggle.

Her voice is important for us to hear - as the stories of women prisoners, and women in the struggle as a whole, don't seem to be publically recounted often.

Roisin is played by West Belfast woman Roisin O'Reilly, who had never acted before. She has had no formal training and was asked to do the play by the author when a suitable actress could not be found. She is simply wonderful. She has great stage presence and it is difficult to separate her from the character she plays; the audience gets the sense that they are one and the same.

The play's author is Rosaleen Walsh, one of the first to be interned in the early 1970s. Her husband was himself on the blanket protest in the H Blocks and continued to serve another several years thereafter. He told me the play had brought back many memories for him. He and Roseleen had only been married eight weeks when he was lifted. Now they have several children and have been together 26 years.

Like many families of ex-prisoners, Rosaleen's children had never spoken to their father about his time in the Blocks, nor had he broached the subject with them. They were in attendance for the performance and one can only imagine what thoughts were going through their heads as they imagined their father in the place of Liam.

For Walsh, the play is obviously a labour of love. She tells the stories of Liam and Roisin with a wonderful fluency and the result is a poetic testimony to the courage and resiliance of republican prisoners and their families.

"Having lived through the trauma of the H Blocks on the outside, it was not an easy subject to write about without reliving the deep hurt, both emotional and spiritual, of this terrible and sad time in our history," writes Walsh in the programme. "[It was] inflicted upon us to such an extent that we choose sometimes to remember in silence rather than openly express how much of that pain we still feel today."

Prelude to '81 is currently in the process of being translated into Irish and should be performed in Belfast again sometime in the near future. It should definitely be required viewing for our young people and brings the reality and starkness of the H Blocks to life in a visual and emotive way.

Although there was only a small crowd to see the play at the Felons when it played in Belfast, the play deserved to be performed to a sold out house.

Next time, don't miss it.

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Ballymurphy tells its story

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives is a play with a difference. It does not have one author. It has many.

The play is about the 33 IRA and Fianna Volunteers whose names appear on the Ballymurphy Roll of Honour, and it is special because it was actually written by the families of those who died, their friends, and local activists who were involved in the struggle alongside them. It is a deeply personal and emotional piece, and it allows the audience a rare glimpse into a tight-knit, staunchly republican community.

The cast of more than 20 actors is made up of both professionals from the JustUs Theatre company and many local people, some of whom had never acted before. They range in age from six to, well... somewhere older than six, and all deserve high praise for their efforts.

Although the play is centred around those who died, it focuses on the personal stories and recollections of those who knew and loved them. This makes for a celebration of their lives rather than just a recounting of how they died.

Each story is played out against the backdrop of the 'Troubles', from 1969 onwards. The audience is able to watch history as it unfolds and witness the very personal toll the conflict has taken on the people of the Ballymurphy area - beginning with the arrival of nationalist "refugees" from other areas of Belfast during the loyalist pogroms and progressing through internment, the Springhill Massacre, the blanket protest and the Hunger Strikes.

The entire local community had a say in the creation of the piece. Local shops even donated food for rehersals, and the show played to a full house all three nights it was performed at Amharclann na Carraige in BIFHE's Whiterock Road campus. Opening night was reserved for families of the dead and as may be expected, it was a highly emotional but rewarding night, not only for all who attended but for those who performed as well.

During the next two nights, many returned for a second performance, bringing hankies along for support. By the end of both evenings, the crowd was on its feet.

The performances are tender, completely heartbreaking at one point, warm and funny the next, and always packed with compassion. It is a powerful and compelling piece, a fitting tribute to those who died - which shouldn't be surprising since it came from the hearts and souls of those who loved them most.

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives shows the evolution of a entire community through the eyes of its own people and humanizes those who sought to protect and free it with warmth, humour and poignancy.

Exactly what great drama should do.

Those involved in the play would like to pay tribure to Marshal Mooney for the time and effort he put into getting the play onto the stage. Unfortunately, Marshal could not be at the opening as he was at the bedside of his seriously ill son.