A great theatre night took place in Castlereagh on 18th February, with our own Arts Officer Conor Maguire directing The Orangeman by St John Ervine. It was a great fun night, a night of theatre as you’ve never seen it before!
The piece was written by Belfast born unionist playwright St John Ervine, the founding father of modern Northern Irish drama. This one-act play was first produced in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in March 1914, and it is one of Ervine’s earliest pieces, yet more than 100 years old but still relevant nowadays.
The play is set on the eleventh night of July 1912, when an ardent Orangeman, John McClurg, sits stewing over his misfortune. He desperately wanted to play at the twelfth celebration, as he used to for the past thirty years, but this year providence, misfortune, or simply rheumatism has intervened to prevent him from attending. His wife and his friend try to cheer him up, suddenly his hope is revived when his son Tom returns home. But the new generation has divergent ideas from the old one…and Tom can’t be bothered about playing at the 12th July celebrations.
The Orangeman was performed by the great renowned local actor Ivan Little, who starred in the History of the Troubles (according to my Da’), who played John McClurg, and Susie Kelly, Niall Cusack and Gerard McCabe playing the other three characters.
The next Rehearsed Reading will be on 11th March at 7pm in the Castlereagh Council Civic offices, and it will be another classic Ulster Play not to be missed!
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