BELFAST BLUES (Irish Repertory Theatre/Stream Theatre)*****

 

 By Cal

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/season/102 

Available until: 16^th May

There are some things in life which don’t really belong in the medium of comedy. These include, but are not restricted to, bombs, guns and childbirth. Bombs and guns can intentionally cause death; in childbirth, death is unintentional but no less tragic. In order to make these things funny, you would need an extraordinarily gifted writer and performer who can find the humour in these situations but deliver it with compassion and respect.

Geraldine Hughes is exactly that kind of performer. There is a lot of sadness in her autobiographical one-woman play, but it is always delivered with compassion, respect, warmth – and a lot of humour. She is not laughing at these things. She is not saying that bombs and guns are anything other than terrible, or that childbirth isn’t uncomfortable and can’t have tragic results. On the contrary, she gives the impression that she knows this very well.

That’s part of the reason she left Ireland and became a performer. Ireland in the 1980s was an unhappy place where devastating events took place and Geraldine was a member of a large Catholic family. She knew that war was devastating and in the Catholic family lifestyle, children are not a choice. Geraldine and her siblings were loved, but they weren’t born into a happy time.

The first stage of Belfast Blues’ development began in 2003, when Geraldine, who had graduated from UCLA’s School for Theatre, Film and TV, was encouraged to share her story by her husband. Sixteen years later, she gave what she felt would be her final performance of Belfast Blues. I’m not exactly sure when this performance was filmed. It feels fresh and immediate and as though Geraldine is completely present in the moment. It doesn’t feel like a piece she has performed so many times, she could perform it in her sleep; it feels like a play that still means a lot to her. The introduction from Irish Repertory Theatre’s Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly suggests this play was filmed in the pandemic, though the crowded auditorium suggests otherwise, but it doesn’t really matter when it was performed. It only matters whether or not it was good – and it really was!

Often, with a play which is presented by just one person, the reviewer makes a comment about how well the single performer plays the many roles. I should really make that comment here too because Geraldine does, without a doubt, play every role brilliantly from her family to the other people in her area of Belfast to the Americans who help her to begin her acting career. But that wasn’t something I saw about as I watched Belfast Blues. I was too busy enjoying the story and watching all the characters come alive in front of me.

I’m not sure who directed this version of the play, but the original production was directed by Charles Haid. I think it is very well-directed. There are no props (though if this was filmed in the last year, that might be a COVID decision), but no props are needed. If Geraldine is pretending to hold or something, we see it and we believe in it.

Geraldine is an extraordinarily gifted actor. She says each line perfectly. She can convey so much even when she’s not speaking and she can make a pause go on forever without losing her intensity or her audience. She is a brilliant comedian, but she is also a very sincere performer who is telling us something very real and personal.

The play is certainly full of adversity, but it is also full of lovely people. Lovely people can’t make everything go away, but they can still make a big difference. I enjoyed hearing about Geraldine’s family and the kind man called George who invited her for a screen test and took care of her on both occasions when she went to the USA. There are so many good people in this play and rather than making the story seem less dramatic, they made it even better. (Though of course, this isn’t the sort of play that’s about creating drama – it’s about telling someone’s true story.)

Another thing I loved is that this play isn’t about the start of Geraldine’s career. It is always interesting to hear actors talking about their careers, but this one went a step further and showed Geraldine as a complete human being and the reason why the opportunity to act was so important for her.

A really lovely, interesting, sad, funny and wonderful piece of theatre.