This play is inspired by Sophocles Antigone but has been updated to 1970s Belfast at the height of The Troubles. Republican gang leader Charlie is responsible for the deaths of his nephews Eamonn and Padraic and that of Padraics fiancée Deryn. He orders that Padraics body be left where he was killed as an example to those who support the enemy but Padraics sister Aine is determined to defy her uncle and risk being shot in order to bury her brother.
The play alternates between present day (1972) Belfast and a period a few years earlier, where we find out how Padraic becomes the enemy. He leaves Ireland to become an undergraduate at Oxford University and while there becomes engaged to an English girl. He takes her back to Belfast to visit his family, not fully understanding how things have changed since his departure and that, although he is still a republican and a strong believer in Irish independence, a protestant fiancée is enough to damn him in the eyes of his uncle.
The main question throughout the play is over the fate of Aine. Will Charlie have his niece shot or be prepared to compromise?
This is an excellent play, performed by a superb young cast, but is very hard to watch, particularly for anyone from Britain or Ireland who remembers The Troubles. The events it portrays so realistically are very recent and still horrifying but perhaps demonstrate how far Northern Ireland has come in the last few years. Not to be missed.
