It’s Belfast’s first festive play of the season and what better way to get you into the Christmas spirit than a night of fun and frolics at The Lyric with some local theatre. Mistletoe & Crime is Olivier Award winner Marie Jones’ latest play about two WPCs trying to navigate Belfast on Christmas Eve, and as you may have guessed, hilarity ensues.
T’was the night before Christmas the city is heavin’
There’s shoppin’ and gurnin’ and drinkin’ and thievin’…
Directed by Dan Gordon and starring Katie Tumelty as Aileen, a constable on her first night on the job and Tara-Lynne O’Neill as Sue on her last night on the job, this is a performance that oozes local charm. Both actresses are great, but Katie Tumelty’s performance especially stands out – we last saw her as the landlady in Cabaret and she’s superb. A variety of other characters help to craft this unique Belfast Christmas Eve played by Gerard Jordan, Matthew McElhinney, Christina Nelson, Ciaran Nolan and Louise Parker. This isn’t your average local Christmas play filled with cheap laughs and smutty slang, it’s a poignant and amusing representation of a Belfast we all know far too well. From fruit loaves to the SOS Bus you see outside Lavery’s on a Saturday night this is a play cram packed with personality and Belfastian nuances that can’t help but make you smile.
The set (designed by Stuart Marshall) is dynamic and innovative and fits the fast pace of the performance perfectly, a rotating piece at the back of the stage allows for a variety of locations to be visited quickly and effectively without distracting from the story, while panels donning pictures of the obscured lights of the city serve to constantly remind us of the busy pace. At one point a hapless homeless man named Haribo climbs the City Hall christmas tree which we see the top of poking up from the stage, at another we see a struggling musician dressed like Duke Special busking on the steps of the BBC.
In between scenes we are reminded of the festive theme with the disjointed clangs of an out of tune Christmas song, but aside from this Sound Designer Garth McConaghie (who scored Nivelli’s War) keeps the sound simple.
Over all Mistletoe & Crime is a fun, yet mature display of local talent filled with Christmas spirit. I’d definitely recommend catching this one at The Lyric before its run ends on 11th January. For more information and to book tickets, click here.
