Belfast Actually 2 – serving up chivalry, compromise and stacks of Christmas cheese (Theatre At The Mill until Saturday 3 January)

Walking out of a Christmas show with a smile on your face should almost be the aim of producers. Leesa Harker and Andrea Montgomery are back in Theatre at the Mill with a follow-up to last year’s gem.

Belfast Actually 2 isn’t afraid to acknowledge that not everyone has a perfect life or has two beans to rub together. Right from the start, the bawdy jokes earn hearty laughs from the audience as The Farmer Wants a Wife Christmas Festival gets underway. Montgomery emphasises the tough situations everyone is facing before sprinkling liberal quantities of Christmas cheese over the story.

The first half flies as we get to know the main characters.

Mary (Jo Donnelly) has come to the wife-grabbing contest with a secret agenda. Farmer Jack (Patrick McBrearty) thinks he knows what he’s looking for but meets his match as he progresses through the rounds. In and out of court Lola (Eimear Bailie) is street smart and book smart. Her new probation officer Max (Adam Gillian) recognises huge potential, but Lola doesn’t want to be ‘fixed’ by this ‘melter’ of a man. Established romantic fiction writer Georgina (Emma Little-Lawless) has an overdue book contract, a pushy publisher, a gammy wrist, and no ideas left for the sweltering sex scenes her readers demand. When younger Kimberley (Matthew O’Leary) shows up on the doorstep to help, her idea of what kind of assistance she needs is turned upside down.

Harker knows her audience and makes them giggle with a song about Viagra, a snowy East 17 cover at the interval (mostly for the craic rather than the plot!), and a book reading that had the third row in conniptions.

Lots of secondary characters come and go as the cast of six’s main parts drift towards possible coupledom. The appearance of a puppet influencer is quite left field, but McBrearty’s reprise of older widow Alison from last year’s show proves to be the returning audience members’ favourite. Scenes regularly break into song, with a aptly localised version of Fairytale of New York (The Pogues) impressing along with an 11 o’clock rendition of You’re The One That I Want (Grease).

Adam Gillian’s first act performance of Maria (West Side Story) is electrifying and shows off his tenor voice. (Hoobastank’s The Reason in the second act is too slow and ponderous and threatens to drain energy from the otherwise well-paced storytelling.) His duet with Lola also gives Bailie a chance to shine. (Back in 2019 she memorably played Tony Macaulay’s love interest Sharon Burgess in BYMT’s Paperboy.)

David Craig’s set from 2024 is ‘regifted’ in fresh wrapping paper. Snow falls. A glitterball sparkles. Chivalry isn’t dead. Self-belief is fragile. Some people can find it in themselves to compromise. Lots of local references tickle the audience. By the time the finale arrives, people are shouting out encouragement to the men on stage who may be about to be swept off their feet by strong women.

Belfast Actually 2 runs until Saturday 3 January in the Theatre At The Mill.

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