22 March 2001 Edition
Murphy's Law
BY LAURA FRIEL
Take the evening off. Get a babysitter. Cancel that cumann meeting. Postpone that romantic dinner for two but if you get the chance don't miss Murphy's Law, the latest offering from Just Us, the West Belfast-based theatre company. The play's first run was completed last week but due to popular demand the players have promised the show will go on again in a few weeks time or during the summer festival.
The hall, Amharclann na Carraige, was packed for what was scheduled to be the last performance. I'd arrived expecting a competent script and performance from players whose previous record included Just a Prisoner's Wife and in conjunction with Dubblejoint, Binlids and Forced Upon Us, but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer delight of the evening ahead.
Set in Ballymurphy in the early 1970s, the idea behind the play is a smple one and the comedy is far from sophisticated but The Hole in the Wall Gang'' must be eating their hearts out. Cast in the same mould as the Wall Gang's brand of comedy, ``Murphy's Law'' offers more than the political snigger. Here is the belly laugh of a community at ease with itself, which knows its weaknesses as well as its strengths and can live with both.
For over two hours we all roared with laughter. Fr Des Wilson, sitting just in front of me, laughed so much he cried. A woman two rows ahead couldn't stop chortling long enough to hear the next joke and there was the heart of it. We were laughing at a play which was inviting us to laugh at ourselves and we were laughing at each other laughing.
Bobby Sands gave us a guideline against which to measure our success when he wrote ``let our revenge be the laughter of our children''. Well we aren't there yet but if Murphy's Law is anything to go by, we're definitely on the right track.
Take the evening off. Get a babysitter. Cancel that cumann meeting. Postpone that romantic dinner for two but if you get the chance don't miss Murphy's Law, the latest offering from Just Us, the West Belfast-based theatre company. The play's first run was completed last week but due to popular demand the players have promised the show will go on again in a few weeks time or during the summer festival.
The hall, Amharclann na Carraige, was packed for what was scheduled to be the last performance. I'd arrived expecting a competent script and performance from players whose previous record included Just a Prisoner's Wife and in conjunction with Dubblejoint, Binlids and Forced Upon Us, but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer delight of the evening ahead.
Set in Ballymurphy in the early 1970s, the idea behind the play is a smple one and the comedy is far from sophisticated but The Hole in the Wall Gang'' must be eating their hearts out. Cast in the same mould as the Wall Gang's brand of comedy, ``Murphy's Law'' offers more than the political snigger. Here is the belly laugh of a community at ease with itself, which knows its weaknesses as well as its strengths and can live with both.
For over two hours we all roared with laughter. Fr Des Wilson, sitting just in front of me, laughed so much he cried. A woman two rows ahead couldn't stop chortling long enough to hear the next joke and there was the heart of it. We were laughing at a play which was inviting us to laugh at ourselves and we were laughing at each other laughing.
Bobby Sands gave us a guideline against which to measure our success when he wrote ``let our revenge be the laughter of our children''. Well we aren't there yet but if Murphy's Law is anything to go by, we're definitely on the right track.