Over two and half hours we’re reminded of the violent events on the streets of this place, carried out by – and in the name of – paramilitaries and state forces, as well as examples of the violent events inside prison, specifically the Maze Long Kesh, again carried out by paramilitaries and officers.
At the start, Oscar is the Commanding Officer in his compound. Marty Maguire revisits this showman with his great voice and staggering falsetto, bringing to life the upbeat character who drills the other men on the wing. The contrast between the beginning and the moment Oscar loses his mojo is stark.
Toot was interned – wrong place, wrong time, though he’s no saint – the first time he ends up behind bars. Gerard McCabe has great fun with this soft-headed clampit who has a fixation with seagulls and provides much of the light in an otherwise shady story. Shaun Blaney’s Eamon is drawn further and further into the republican movement, eventually ending up as a ‘blanket man’ and considers volunteering for the hunger strike. He also teaches Toot to read.
Jo Donnelly excels as the loyalist supremo Thumper, a man who misses the boat on getting an education and ultimately fritters away the opportunities that might have turned his life around. Bob Dylan-loving loyalist Hank is played by Warren McCook. But the real drama is always over in the republican compounds.
Lisa May co-directs Chronicles and her stylised frozen action choreography along with James McFetridge’s focussed lighting allows prison officer Freddie to step forward and provide the context – for much is needed as we speed through history – of who the characters are and what’s happening inside and outside the prison. Like all the characters, Jimmy Doran’s Freddie life is affected by what happens at work. The darkness of the black set and props echoes the depression that falls over the inmates and their officers.
A long first act reaches its crescendo with the beginning of the first hunger strike. After the interval, the drama switched from stage to the stalls, with phone calls galore, someone answering a call from their taxi firm, taking a photograph with their phone’s flash on, and constant loud side conversations with deep voices that distracted from key moments on stage. Lots of shushing from those seated around them was ignored: in fact, this all came from a group who had moved forward to empty seats at the interval and were joking about having been shushed on the way out. If only the Grand Opera House had a slammer to throw them in …
The second act is caught in a conundrum. Early on, a lot of Tamla Motown music is used – all performed with beautiful a cappella harmonies by the cast with only the beat of a stick on the wooden set to accompany them – to inject pace back into the performances. But the oppressive events inside and outside the prison mean that even music can’t lift everyone’s mood in the audience.
The cast’s rendition of Long Time Coming after the republican inmates hear about the death of Bobby Sands is a beautiful moment of theatre, absent of romanticism, but thick with grief, loss, pain and pity.
While Martin Lynch’s play doesn’t teach us anything new about the Troubles or the prison system, and it defiantly ignores victims to focus on the experience of the perpetrators – most of whom also qualify as victims in one sense or another – it does creatively mark a passage of history that should not be forgotten. Like the heavy black boxes that form the set, the constant sense of separation that rains down on the prisoners and officer Freddie can shift around but can never leave the stage.
Chronicles of Long Kesh continues its run at the Grand Opera House until Saturday 8 June before continuing its NI tour.
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