Thursday , March 28 2024
The Irish Rep presents a new play that's old-fashioned in the best way, a funny, sad, affecting and deep tale of forbidden passion and survival amid senseless violence.

Theater Review (NYC): ‘The Belle of Belfast’ by Nate Rufus Edelman

A scene from 'The Belle of Belfast' - with Patricia Conolly and Hamish Allan-Headley. Photo: Carol Rosegg
A scene from ‘The Belle of Belfast’ – with Patricia Conolly and Hamish Allan-Headley. Photo: Carol Rosegg

Set in the Northern Ireland capital in 1985 amid bombings by the Provisional IRA, Nate Rufus Edelman’s The Belle of Belfast is an old-fashioned play in the best way. It tells a funny, sad, affecting and deep tale of forbidden passion and survival amid senseless violence through a straightforward sequence of exceptionally well-acted scenes, sharply and sensitively written.

Directed inventively by the sure-handed Claudia Weill, the story begins in the confessional of a 35-year-old priest (Hamish Allan-Headley), where sinless old Emma Malloy (a wonderfully droll Patricia Conolly) persists in owning up to nonexistent trespasses. Things get serious when Emma’s volative, emotionally scarred grand-niece Anne (Kate Lydic) confesses to impure thoughts that take Father Reilly aback.

Ironically, the past and present violence continues to take its toll on the lines of these Northern Ireland Catholics, in which cause they are putatively carried out. They’ve made 17-year-old Anne a firebrand, orphaned by a bomb, struggling valiantly to create a place for love in her life and rise above the tragedies of the Troubles.

The character of Father Reilly feels a little less believable, even a bit stereotypical at first. But Allan-Headley makes the conflicted priest easy to warm to and a stolid balance to Anne’s impulsive emotionalism. Meanwhile Billy Meleady as his older priestly colleague and Arielle Hoffman in a touching pearl of a performance as Anne’s relatively shy friend Ciara do fine work in support. Meleady gives us one of the most entertaining drunk, cursing clerics you’re likely ever to see, but also reveals a very serious and dedicated side to the character. When he erupts in anger, it’s as transfixing as Anne’s stark command to Father Reilly to “Talk!”

A scene from 'The Belle of Belfast' - with Arielle Hoffman and Kate Lydic. Photo: Carol Rosegg
A scene from ‘The Belle of Belfast’ – with Arielle Hoffman and Kate Lydic. Photo: Carol Rosegg

Though it premiered in 2012 in Los Angeles and was developed in part through the Irish Rep’s reading series the following year, The Belle of Belfast shows an old-fashioned devotion to dramatic storytelling without avant-garde trappings or technical special effects, unless you count the projection of black-and-white photos of the dreadful aftermath of the real bombings that inspired this admirable play. Clearly not thrown by having to adapt to a temporary home at the DR2 Theatre in Union Square, the Irish Rep has produced another winner. The Belle of Belfast runs through June 7. Get tickets online or call OvationTix at 212-727-2737.

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About Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Publisher and Executive Editor of Blogcritics as well as lead editor of the Culture & Society section. As a writer he contributes most often to Music, where he covers classical music (old and new) and other genres, and Culture, where he reviews NYC theater. Through Oren Hope Marketing and Copywriting at http://www.orenhope.com/ you can hire him to write or edit whatever marketing or journalistic materials your heart desires. Jon also writes the blog Park Odyssey at http://parkodyssey.blogspot.com/ where he is on a mission to visit every park in New York City. He has also been a part-time working musician, including as lead singer, songwriter, and bass player for Whisperado.

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