RAVE reviews have followed Frank McGuinness’ play ‘Carthaginians’ as it tours nationally. Millennium Forum Derry is behind this 2012 production of the play which is acknowledged as one of the few enduring art works to have emerged from ‘The Troubles’. It examines the painful legacy of Bloody Sunday for individuals and the collective psyche of a family, deriving its name from ancient Carthage (814 BC), a maritime power on North Africa’s coast for which empires did battle.
Derry’s walled city holds the echo.
‘Carthaginians’ comes to Belltable Arts Centre from Thursday March 22 to Saturday 24 and is directed by the Enniskillen born actor, Adrian Dunbar.
Described as “an elegy for Bloody Sunday in Derry”, it is “the survival of tragedy, of intense grief which becomes the unspoken subject through the personal journeys of three women and three men who camp out in a graveyard awaiting the rise of the dead”.
The first half of the play is inspired by a humourous take on all that has shaped Derry’s recent history. The second half draws the audience into it sadness and anger, a leadening guilt experienced by the family’s survivors.
Dido is the outsider who brings daily pram loads of supplies into the walled city, including a script of his own attempt at a play about the North, ‘The Burning Balaclava’. It’s a familiar device by which much is explored by playwright and consequently, director. Matthew McElhinney and Liam McMahon share in the cast.
This production commemorates the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the 10th anniversary of Derry’s Millennium Forum. March 22-24, 8pm at Belltable.
Orla Charlton as Maela and Brian Hutton as Paul, directed by Adrian Dunbar at Belltable March 22-2, 8pm.
