A Mother's Heart - to the heart of conflict

Ned Kelly previews another play by DubbelJoint which previews in West Belfast and is set to take the country by storm
DubbelJoint's latest offering, `A Mother's Heart', that opens in Belfast at BIFHE (Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education) on the Whiterock Road on Wednesday 24 February, expresses loss, grief and anger with great power and authority.

A remarkable play, written by Pearse Elliot, a West Belfast man of prodigious talent, and performed by `BinLids' veterans Brenda Murphy, Bridie McMahon and Anne-Marie Meenan along with recently released Republican POW Rosena Brown, it explores the loss suffered by four women. The play consists of four monologues, each an unfolding tale of a mother's loss of a child to the war. It represents the depth of anger and pain, the real cost of the war, the real politics and it confronts the rhetoric of party politics and Assemblies.

Pulling no punches, it looks squarely in the face at the difference between Loyalist and Republican violence while allowing no room for complacency or equivocation. It shows Loyalist violence in its purest form, exploring the depth of hatred Loyalists have shown towards Catholics. The play also explores the battle to keep hatred, as a reaction to loss, at bay. By turns difficult and unrelenting there is also a dark humour and great warmth.

The skill and maturity of Elliot's pen in creating four women, all mothers, all united by loss, all human, lets the audience in, close in to the intimate, desperate half mad world of their grief and anger.

One of the four actresses, Rosena Brown, told An Phoblacht, ``there are parts of the play I can identify with; being a mother who lost a son, being a single-mother, the loss of close relatives to the war and the frustration of rearing teenagers in this climate.

``It also brings real humanity to the grief of loss, they are not just names on the news, where you read about deaths but then get distracted, this play really hits home.''

From one line in `Just a Prisoners Wife', to one monologue in `BinLids' and now 25 minutes on stage alone in `A Mother's Heart' Anne-Marie Meenan's growing confidence mirrors the leap forward of the community as a whole in recognising not only their part as a catalyst for change and growth but also in understanding the effects of the war. Meenan said, ``everybody will relate to this because everyone has experienced it, but for someone to tell it up on stage is something entirely new.''

Brenda Murphy, another `BinLids' veteran who is also busy researching and writing material for a new play about the RUC to be unveiled later this year, said, ``the play has echoes for a lot of women - including my own mother - who have lost someone. It has a rage and an anger. It invokes that rage especially for women who have lost a child where the surge of love is thrown against the wall of loss, grief, guilt and hate but there is also the biting humour that is typical of Belfast.

``Some people, especially men, might feel uncomfortable and it doesn't allow you to laugh it off, it must be confronted but I hope people will be big enough to put aside the politics and understand the emotions of it. It is the first play during my lifetime, during the war, that has addressed the issues that women have kept hidden and this play allows them to become public.''

Writer Pearse Elliot, from the Lenadoon area of West Belfast, is a talent just on the verge of real fame. He cut his teeth with radio drama and was the winner of the BBC Young Playwright of the Year in 1996. He has a novel soon to be published and a number of screenplays in the pipeline. His first film feature `Rap at the Door' will be screened on BBC 2 on 7 March at 10.30 pm. It deals with the controversial subject of those who were killed and whose bodies have never been found. Elliot has the energy and candour of youth married to a keen observational eye and compassion. He expressed real pleasure at the way the production was bringing his words to life.

``This play,'' he said, ``is a real first. I don't think there has ever been a play like it, that articulates women's rage and humanity, done by women who have lived through it and have something to say.''

Director Pam Brighton, who has established a tradition of premiering plays in West Belfast, and has struggled to bring quality drama that is meaningful and relevant to the area, said, ``the energy and quality of Pearse's writing along with the performances of the four actresses vindicates the argument for the development of a permanent base in West Belfast to tap into the talent and creativity here.''

A Mother's Heart is a truly great work of drama that will help both to move the debate on about what is needed to create a new and just Ireland and to heal the destructive hate of the last 30 years. Every politician currently procrastinating over the future of generations of mothers to come should be made to watch it. Not to be missed.

24-27 February BIFHE, Whiterock Road Belfast
For Tickets: The Green Cross Art Shop (Falls Road), XL Shop & Stop (Castle Street), or contact DubbelJoint (01232) 202222

Other dates:

1-2 March ‹ to be confirmed
3 March ‹ St Canice's Hall Dungiven
4-6 March ‹ Backstage Theatre (043) 47888 Longford
9-13 March ‹ The Everyman Palace (021) 501673 Cork
15 March ‹ The Garage Theatre (047) 81597 Monaghan
16 March ‹ The Bardic Theatre (01868) 725311 Donaghmore
18 March ‹ Drumlin House (049) 52605 Cootehill
19-20 March ‹ Cornmill Theatre (049) 39612 Carriglen
22 March ‹ Parochial Hall c/o Biddies (075) 21219 Dungloe
23 March ‹ Balor Theatre (074) 21254 Ballybofey
24-25 March ‹ The Playhouse (01504) 373538 Derry
26-27 March ‹ The Riverside Theatre (01265) 51388 Coleraine