History
"The Lyric began in the 1950s when an ardently committed couple, Mary and Pearse O’Malley, transformed the back rooms of their house into a space dedicated to plays and players and what their beloved W.B.Yeats called "the painted stage". Some of my best memories of theatre are located in that first home and in the new playhouse that was eventually built on the banks of the Lagan." Seamus Heaney
LOST LIGHT by Ronan Farren
First performance by the Lyric Players before an invited audience in the O’Malley’s drawing-room theatre at 117 Lisburn Road.
The Players moved to a studio space in a hayloft at the O’Malley’s new residence in Derryvolgie Avenue.
The scale of work having expanded hugely, the Lyric Players became a non-profit making association with the aim of building a new theatre.
Austin Clarke, doyen of Irish poets, laid the foundation stone for the new theatre on Ridgeway Street on the banks of the River Lagan in South Belfast.
The Lyric’s current home opened on 26th October, 1968.
THE FLATS by John Boyd.
The first play on the Troubles by a local writer to be staged in Northern Ireland and the first play in over a decade to deal directly with sectarian politics. The play did unprecedented business in its first run at the Lyric, attracting a new, less middle-class audience to the theatre.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR by Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber
Too hot for many people to handle back in the Seventies, protestors outside the theatre helped to ensure full houses! The cast included Ken Stott, now familiar for many TV appearances including The Messiah.
PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! by Brian Friel
Perhaps Liam Neeson’s finest hour on the Lyric stage, co-starring alongside John Hewitt.
THE INTERROGATION OF AMBROSE FOGARTY by Martin Lynch
The first time mainstream theatre in Northern Ireland tackled a contemporary political subject as inflammatory as interrogation head-on. Martin Lynch’s drama enjoyed two capacity runs and played to audiences of a wide social range.
THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM by Graham Reid
Set in a working class school in a Protestant area of West Belfast, this was a hard-hitting play suggesting that those failed by an ineffective education system today faced only the dole, or potential paramilitary involvement tomorrow. The cast included a young Adrian Dunbar.
INDIAN SUMMER by Jennifer Johnston
Jennifer Johnston’s beautiful play benefited from a stunning performance from Ciaran Hinds, now an internationally acclaimed film actor, most recently seen in Steven Spielberg’s Munich.
JOYRIDERS by Christina Reid
Joyriders gave a shock of recognition to many young people attending theatre for the first time with its focus on a young, working-class generation whose voice was placed centrestage.
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT by
Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber
Director Robin Midgley managed to secure the very elusive rights to stage a production that saw professional actors and a children’s chorus combine to create theatrical and box office gold.
DANCING AT LUGHNASA by Brian Friel
You had to fight to get a ticket for Conall Morrison’s breathtaking production.
STONES IN HIS POCKETS by Marie Jones
Conleth Hill and Seán Campion both earned Tony nominations for their performances as film extras Charlie and Jake in this smash-hit comedy.
CONVERSATIONS ON A HOMECOMING by Tom Murphy
The Lyric’s production toured to the Dublin Theatre Festival with a cast that included Adrian Dunbar and Conleth Hill.
A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER by Marie Jones
A one-man tour de force for actor Dan Gordon, this play had succeeded in capturing the public mood during an historic period which encompassed both the extreme pessimism of the June 1994 Loughinisland and Shankill murders, and the cautious optimism of the first IRA ceasefire. Sell-out audiences welcomed its humour, note of possibility and message that people’s destiny lies in their own hands. The Lyric toured its production to Australia.
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