Lyric Theatre and Rough Magic Theatre Company present The Parker Project

The Parker Project will be the theatre event of the year in Belfast – a once off chance to re-examine the repertoire of Stewart Parker, widely regarded as the greatest Belfast playwright of his generation. It will involve presenting his first play, Spokesong, and his last, Pentecost, as one project – and it gives Belfast audiences the chance to see them individually or together on Saturdays. The project as a whole is a fascinating new take on his work in the 20th anniversary of his untimely death. It will also be the Lyric’s first offsite production, while the new theatre is being built on the Ridgeway Street site, and is a co-production with Dublin’s Rough Magic Theatre Company

"His plays are as fresh as when they were first staged...
his themes - of unity, common purpose, preservation and respect -
are astonishingly current"
Grania McFadden, Belfast Telegraph

Parker was born in Belfast in 1941 and much of his work celebrates his fascination with the place of his birth. He came to prominence as a playwright in the 1970s and 80s when eight of his stage plays received premieres at leading Irish and UK theatre venues. Spokesong, won the 1976 Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award and Pentecost, won the Harvey's Irish Theatre Award in 1987. The presentation of both plays in repertoire will give a profound insight into this writer’s work and introduce them to a new generation.

The production will be performed in the Old Northern Bank in Waring Street from 22 April to 17 May as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, before transferring to Dublin.

"an accomplished production
with stirring exhortations towards spiritual, human transformation"
Peter Crawley, The Irish Times.

Both plays will be directed by Stewart’s niece, Lynne Parker, who is co-founder and Artistic Director of Rough Magic Theatre Company. Widely regarded as one of the leading Irish theatre directors of her generation, Lynne has worked with many other companies including Charabanc Theatre Company, the Abbey, Druid, the Almeida, the Peter Hall Company and the RSC. The plays will be performed by an ensemble comprising some of the best Northern Irish actors working in the theatre today including Dan Gordon, Eleanor Methven, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Marty Rea, Richard Clements, Ali White, Gemma Mae Halligan and Will Irvine.

In Spokesong the action takes place in Belfast during the early 1970s, and the eighty years preceding them. It is set in a Victorian bicycle shop, owned by Frank Stock, philosopher and dreamer, who believes in the regeneration of his native city through the miracle of the bicycle. The city fathers, however, are not convinced. This tender and humorous tribute to the city and its citizens is told with an unusual and highly entertaining mix of history, song, and cycling tricks.

Pentecost sees four people are gathered together by an accident of fate in a Belfast working-class parlour house where, against the background of the Ulster Workers' Council Strike, they work out their relationships to each other, to the world outside, to the past. Only Marian is aware of a fifth presence - the ghost of Lily Matthews, the previous occupant. Humane, funny and profoundly moving, this play demonstrates fully the achievement of this great and compassionate writer.

Spokesong and Pentecost will be presented over four weeks, alternating every two days throughout the run, while both plays will be presented on Saturdays.

The Lyric’s own box office is closed during the redevelopment, so booking is by web at Link or in person or by phone at the Belfast Welcome Centre at 028-90246609.