Armagh City and District Council’s Good Relations Team are currently recruiting community volunteers from throughout the City & District to participate in their Interaction Project. This 12 week project aims to use theatre as a way of raising awareness of good relations issues. During the programme participants will have the opportunity to attend a number of theatre plays in the Market Place Theatre and also complete an Open College Network (OCN) Level 2 qualification in Dealing with Contentious Issues. This is a nationally recognized qualification that is equivalent to a GCSE. The Project will commence on Wednesday 15th February 2012 from 7pm – 9pm at the Market Place Theatre. There is no cost associated with this project however participants must be over the age of 18 and attend a minimum of 80% of the workshops.
If you would like to be considered to participate in this project please contact Frances Haughey at the Armagh City and District Council on 028 3752 9600 no later than Monday 30th January 2012 as places are limited.
Some of the plays that will be covered during the Project include:
Brothers In Arms (Wednesday 22nd February 2012)
From the pen of former republican prisoner and novelist Sam Millar, and directed by Martin Lynch, this exciting new work tells the story of two brothers – one a dissident republican, the other a Sinn Fein MLA – who come together to bury their father. Despite their mother’s pleas to let their father rest in peace, old resentments rise to the surface in this incisive portrait of the divisions in modern-day republicanism. Frank Mullan spent fourteen years in Long Kesh as a political prisoner, experiencing the H Blocks and the Bobby Sands hunger-strike era. He watched his marriage crumble under the pressure and now, out of prison, he has deteriorating health, no marriage and no job. In contrast, Michael, who was interned briefly for his political beliefs, is a successful politician and one of the rising stars in Sinn Fein. As the political animosity between the two brothers becomes more personal, shameful family secrets are brought out into the open.. Drawing on the playwright’s own experiences, Brothers in Arms is an unflinching exploration of the history of the republican movement and the challenges it currently faces. With one section of republicans at the heart of the Stormont government and another section planting bombs and shooting policemen, this play takes an explosive look at what this means, not only to the Mullan family, but the future of our entire community.
Carthaginians (Wednesday 29th February 2012)
Frank McGuinness’ Carthaginians has often been acknowledged as one of the few enduring plays to have emerged from ‘The Troubles’. An elegy for Bloody Sunday in Derry, it is the survival of tragedy, of intense grief which becomes the unspoken subject through the personal journeys of three women and three men who camp out in a graveyard awaiting the rise of the dead. Dido is the outsider who brings daily pram loads of supplies including a script of his own attempt at a Troubles Play, The Burning Balaclava, the comic centrepiece which is surrounded by jokes, quizzes and encounters which pass the time of waiting. Individual resurrections signal a community, like Carthage, rising from its ashes.
Tim McGarry’s Political Party (Friday 16th March 2012)
Following the huge success of Tim McGarry’s Irish History Lesson the lanky guru is back with a new one-man stand-up show. This time Tim has set his satirical sights on all things political. In a country where ex-terrorists and even Jim Allister can get elected, Tim thinks maybe it’s time he had a go. Tim McGarry’s Political Party is a hilarious fun packed examination of how we do politics here. And he takes a sharp look at our politicians and their contribution to making Northern Ireland the superb place is it is today. Is it time for a new Party? Would you Vote McGarry? Maybe not, but you will be laughing at this sharp, scathing and side-splitting show which gives our politicians all the respect they so richly deserve.
Chronicles of Long Kesh (Wednesday 18th April 2012)
This play is written and directed by Martin Lynch and it tells the story of the jail as seen through the eyes of both republican and loyalist prisoners, the prison officers who worked there and the many families who passed through its gates from the opening in August 1971 to its closure in July 2000. This play is being shown in the Grand Opera House in Belfast and project participants will attend an overnight residential where they will not only see the play but participate in a number of study visits while in Belfast. These visits will include a polticial tour of West Belfast; Long Kesh Prison and Stormont Parliament Buildings.
Give my head peace (Wednesday 25th April 2012)
Da, Cal, Ma, Dympna and Billy return to the Market Place Theatre for an evening of fun, laughter and topical comedy not to be missed. A great night’s banter guaranteed!
A Night with George Theatre Play (Saturday 5th May 2012)
Although fictional, this play offers a perspective of history that is often forgotten or ignored by the history books. This is a tale of a West Belfast woman who had to act as “both mother and father” to her son when, shortly after their marriage, her husband was imprisoned for IRA activity. Not only that, but it also documents her attempts years later to renegotiate her relationship with her husband when he is released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Love knows no right away (Wednesday 16th May 2012)
‘Love Knows No Right-a-Way’ is set in the late 1990’s in a small village, somewhere in Northern Ireland. Two Families of different religious tradition and culture, attempt to resolve their differences when they disagree as to who has the right to walk along a certain pathway which has traditionally been accessible to all of the public. The younger generation, who prove to be less staunch in their ways, attempt to persuade their parents to try to live in harmony. Throughout the ill-will that ensues, love flourishes between these two young people regardless of cultural differences and they find it hard to understand why adults cannot behave in an adult-fashion. It is only when old friends recognise each other and remember the respect and love that they once had for each other, that they realise their behaviour is socially unacceptable and subsequently they make amends to live in peace and respect of each other.
