New Speak: Re-imagined – new work to be premiered weekly on the Lyric Theatre’s YouTube channel from 24 April

Just over a month ago – though it feels much longer – I sat down in the Lyric’s bar area to interview a very excited Lisa May about her upcoming production of 1984.  The show should have begun its previews on the Lyric Theatre main stage last weekend, running until 16 May.

George Orwell’s ideas about state surveillance, social pressures, doublethink (the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously), Big Brother and the Thought Police echo around my head in these days when you can be fined for straying too far from your home, and smartphones may soon help the health services (and the government) understand who a patient who tests positive for COVID-19 has been in contact with in recent days.

Bruiser Theatre’s production has had to be postponed, though remembering Lisa May’s enthusiasm for the project – “I keep going down a never-ending series of rabbit holes – frustrating and wonderful – as I research” – leads me to believe 1984 will return in better times.

Running alongside the main stage production, the Lyric had commissioned dynamic short performance pieces under the banner of New Speak: Re-imagined that sought to engage with the urgent questions raised by our current political, social and economic moment.

While the five artists (Amadan Ensemble, Zara Janahi, Dominic Montague, Katie Richardson and Lata Sharma) cannot stage their work in the Naughton Studio, the Lyric and its artists have adapted their concepts to move them online and will be featuring the performances in four weekly instalments that will premiere on the Lyric Theatre YouTube channel at 7pm on Friday evenings from 24 April. Each work will be available to watch for seven days.

Based on a quote – “I can see what the future will look like” – from Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s Olivier Award-nominated stage adaptation of 1984, their work will reflect the current coronavirus pandemic landscape; how we got here, and imagining where we go next.

The Lyric’s Executive Producer, Jimmy Fay, describes the Seed Commissions as “compelling, invigorating new work”.

“Our stages may be dark but our mission to create, entertain, inspire as well as support and platform new works continues as we adapt to engage our audiences during these challenging times.”

Abomination: The Behind the Scenes Documentary (on the QFT Player from today)

The Belfast Ensemble’s Abomination: A DUP Opera sold out its initial concert version performances in 2018’s Outburst Arts Festival and its full theatrical run on the main stage at the Lyric Theatre in 2019.

The opera, written by Belfast composed and musician extraordinaire Conor Mitchell, is a verbatim piece. The lyrics are quotes from DUP politicians discussing homosexuality over the years. The elected representatives’ rhetoric is often used in long chunks and given quite a lot of context.

The central thread through the performance is the extraordinary interview by Iris Robinson on The Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster. She was both an MLA and MP for the Strangford constituency – resigning 18 months later over a different issue – and her husband was First Minister.

In the run up to the most recent production, Nicky Larkin shot a documentary, going behind the scenes with the cast and musicians in their East Belfast rehearsal space. There’s something powerful about making high art out of offensive rhetoric. There’s also something powerful and jarring about watching a deconsecrated church building being used to rehearse a show that highlights how religion and religious language can be used and abused to stamp on and bully homosexuality, never mind the cast’s own varying levels of belief in God.

Larkin’s documentary picks out some key cast members and creatives and weaves short interviews in amongst the rehearsal footage. It’s a fond companion piece to the original opera, bringing to the surface some of the experiences of LGBT members of the production and the emotions that having to professionally sing insults that they’ve heard hurled against themselves in the past.

They Are Poofs is the most hummable tune in the opera. (It’s based on Sammy Wilson’s comments in June 1992 after gay rights activists requested the use of Belfast City Hall when he said “They are poofs. I don't care if they are ratepayers. As far as I am concerned, they are perverts.”) Larkin uses the song to good effect – and the 43-minute film finishes with extended footage of the on-stage version (which was more muted and less flamboyant than the original concert version).

There’s a lack of tension, even though Mitchell’s habit of not finishing writing a piece before it goes into rehearsal could have been an easy hook. Instead, Larkin steps outside the rehearsal room and travels three and a half miles up the Newtownards Road to examine community reaction to the political processes that are on the verge of bringing same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland. He stumbles over some people protesting (and maybe even counter-protesting) in front of Parliament Buildings that were larger in life than any satirist or opera director could have drawn.

Originally due to be premièred in the Queen’s Film Theatre as part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics, the sold-out screening of Abomination: The Behind the Scenes Documentary was cancelled due to coronavirus. But you can see a taster of the documentary in the clips that accompany my interview with Larkin that was filmed and screened instead as part of the festival’s virtual coverage when it switched online.




Since then, The Belfast Ensemble’s show has been awarded the accolade of Best Opera Production by the Irish Times Theatre Awards.

And from today for a week, Abomination: The Behind the Scenes Documentary is available to watch for $1.99 through the QFT Player link on the Queen’s Film Theatre website.