Off-Broadway Review: “Belfast Blues”
After years of touring and multiple performances in New York City, Geraldine Hughes’s autobiographical “Belfast Blues” is currently playing at Irish Repertory Theatre – virtually – as the first performance in the Theatre’s online 2020 season. Filmed at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre in 2019 where it was directed by Carol Kane, “Belfast Blues” chronicles Ms. Hughes’s childhood survival of and eventual exit from Ireland’s Troubles in the 1980s when the battles between Ireland’s Catholics and Protestants sent bullets flying through the walls of the young girl’s home.
The Troubles broke out in Ireland in 1969 and steadfastly remain into the country’s present. Geraldine Hughes’s performance demonstrates the fear and the deep sadness of her young self as she claws through the danger that surrounds her daily both inside and out of her closet “safe space.” Ms. Hughes uses the full arsenal of ethos, pathos, and logos to bring her childhood memories to vivid reality that draws her audience into her fragile world of survival.
Although drenched in melancholy, “Belfast Blues” also shares moments of humor as Ms. Hughes introduces her family and friends “Constantly blinking Eddie” and Ms. Hughes’s awful next-door neighbor “Margaret” are enlivened by the actor’s remarkable use of physicality and voice to define those characters as well as the other twenty-four that appear in her story as she comes to terms with her Divis Flats existence.
Director Carol Kane gives Geraldine Hughes the space she needs to tell her story with authenticity and stark believability. Jonathan Christman’s set and lighting design and Jonathan Snipes’s sound design draw us close to young Geraldine’s journey from Belfast to America.
As one watches her story of a divided nation riddled by conflict and deep mistrust, it is impossible not to be emotionally entrenched in America’s current “troubles” that also seem to have no end.
The stage production of “Belfast Blues” features set and lighting design by Jonathan Christman and sound design by Jonathan Snipes. The Performance on Screen was edited by Jude Lynch of Mashmob in Belfast.
Remaining performances will take place Friday September 25 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday September 26 at 3:00 p.m.* and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday September 27 at 3:00 p.m. All times are EDT. *These performances will feature captions. Reservations are free to the public, with a suggested donation of $25 for those who can afford to give. To view a performance, audience members must register at IrishRep.org for one of the performance dates. A link will be sent to all registrants two hours before the performance begins. Running time is 75 minutes.