Weird Belfast: The Musical.

 I'm in the theatre. Well, I'm not. I'm typing this on my laptop. But the words are taken from my notebook which I was writing in while at the theatre, so when I say I'm at the theatre, at the time of writing I was. I think its important to be clear. I'm in the theatre and its a theatre I've never been to before. 

I used to write plays. I used to be a sort of playwright. I was in the theatre business. I used to review plays as well. I was ace face on the scene. But here, today, I know nobody. Here in this church hall, where a giant wooden eagle looms down on the audience, I don't no a single person. Most of the people here are older than me - a rare treat these days - the rest are agitated, dragged-along children. 

I'm sitting in a pew drinking a bottle of Asahi, while the band tinkle through some ambient vamping. It's nice. There seems to be a melodica. Like some Mark Hollis off-cuts. I used to do this all the time. I don't mean drinking in church. I mean drinking a bear and scratching into a notebook in the semi-darkness while people clump about on stage shouting their heads off. If you wanted to glamourise it you could say it used to be my job, though the money was pitiful ten years ago and non-existent today. I don't really go to the theatre anymore. That's not true. I go to the theatre whenever I leave Northern Ireland. I just don't go to the theatre here. 

Except tonight. Tonight I'm watching something weird. Something interesting. There's a small band on stage and there's a projection screen bisecting the stage and it's lit so half of the action is hazily visible through it. It's very Shockheaded Peter, a production I saw repeatedly in London in the early 2000s, and Stephen Beggs is very ably filling Julian Bleach's shoes here, something I imagine he'd be delighted by. There are more than two pale boys playing in this band, but hey, it is Belfast. 

Periodically, Dan Leith appears strumming a ukulele. In any other context this vision would give me pause, but here it happens twice and reveal Leith to be a harbinger of the banger. The music is excellent and, for the most part well-balanced, though the drums a little thin, though that only adds to the carny/ music hall vibe they're reaching for. The second half of the show is better than the first, tighter and more focused. I couldn't tell you the names of the songs as the church was so dark I couldn't take notes. I couldn't see my Asahi in front of my face. 

This is an excellent show, the cast committed and strong. And its about Belfast, something new about the oddness of this place, the granular strangeness of this lonely little country. It goes way back. It's buried deep. 

With tweaked sound and a fancier setting this show could be very strong indeed. It needs a swift injection of cash. I hope it gets one. Heritage money? Tourism cash? These are comic songs about the dark history of this city, but a different narrative than the one we're all used to. This is fresh. Chuck it some coin.