SCOTLAND-BASED dramatists (both Irish and Scottish) have a strong track record when it comes to writing comic plays about Unionism in Northern Ireland.
In 2014, the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh premiered DC Jackson’s Kill Johnny Glendenning, a rollicking, hilarious satire in which the brilliant, Northern Irish actor (and dramatist) David Ireland played the titular Loyalist paramilitary.
Then, in 2016 in Dublin, came Cyprus Avenue, a brilliant, dark comedy written by the same David Ireland, about a very different working-class Unionist, the ageing and confused Eric Miller. The drama was revived, with great success, earlier this year by Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, starring the superb David Hayman as Miller, a man who has mistaken his newborn granddaughter for Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
The latest play in this tradition is Fleg, by Meghan Tyler (who shares with David Ireland the distinctions of an Irish heritage and having trained as an actor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow).
A co-production between A Play, a Pie and a Pint and Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, it is a pungent, sometimes cartoonish 50 minutes of political comedy.
The play centres on wildly dysfunctional, working-class East Belfast couple Bobby (Harry Ward) and Caroline (Beth Marshall), who are plunged into crisis by the passing of Queen Elizabeth.
As young council worker Tierna (a Belfast Protestant who managed to come by an Irish name, played by the excellent Fran Hess) attempts to put a Union Flag on a lamppost at half-mast, Bobby explodes in consternation about the importance of the “fleg” and of it not being tampered with by the council worker’s assumedly Catholic hands.
The Unionist couple are the stuff of comic caricature. Bobby struts around, beer belly protruding from under his shirt, as if he is constantly at the head of an Orange parade.
Caroline (resplendent in orange hair, hoodie and sweatpants) is a cartoon working-class Unionist, struggling to make ends meet, but insistent that “Her Majesty” had “a hard life”.
Deliberately two-dimensional the characters may be, but that does not make them easy for actors to play. Ward and Marshall are both superb, making their monsters into, respectively, a hilarious image of maniacal meltdown (Bobby) and a woman sliding towards an anguished epiphany (Caroline).
Tyler has run with the popular jibe about the sexual proclivities of Donald Trump (when he literally hugged and kissed the Stars and Stripes) and other flag-obsessed ultra-patriots. In Bobby’s obsessive mind the Union Flag is transformed into a young, female, cut glass English-accented object of desire.
The masturbatory humour that ensues is far from subtle, as is (progressive and republican) Tierna’s borderline polemical dialogue with Caroline later in the play.
Nevertheless, there is some lovely writing here, not least when Bobby and Caroline bewail the death of the 96-year-old monarch, agreeing that she died “too young”.
The boldness and humour of the writing, combined with the universally fabulous acting and the intensity and rhythm of Dominic Hill’s direction make this an enjoyable, if imperfect, piece of lunchtime theatre.
Run ended
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel