From renowned Belfast playwright Rosemary Jenkinson comes Stitched Up, a new satirical play by C21 Theatre Company about the local National Health Service.

Jenkinson first decided to address the NHS in her latest play after suffering debilitating pain from cysts on her spine. She required a serious operation, but the referral to a specialist in London took so long that she had no option but to fund the operation herself. She commented:

“With ‘Stitched Up’ my intention was to take my experience and do something positive with it. I don’t want to bash the NHS as I know there are many incredibly hard working individuals who do their best on a daily basis.  I wanted to create a dramatic story and bring it to life on stage, whilst highlighting some of our very own Northern Irish idiosyncrasies and laugh at them, rather than cry!”

Funded by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the play will open at The Lyric Theatre on 17th February and run until 21st February. Focusing on Aiden, an NHS surgeon and his wife Katie, a high profile peace facilitator who is preoccupied with her campaign to remove the peace walls in Belfast, this is a dark and edgy performance about morals, society and relationships.

Stitched Up is a definite homegrown affair with an all Belfast cast of Richard Clements, Roisin Gallagher and Darren Franklin. Creative director Stephen Kelly discussed how happy he is with the production so far:

“We have three great actors involved in the production, Richard Clements who recently starred in ‘The Fall’, Roisin Gallagher also in ‘The Fall’ as well as the BBC One show ‘Doctors’ and Darren Franklin who has acted across theatre and television. All of them have enormous experience across a number of fields and it is a privilege and an honour to work with them in ‘Stitched Up’.

The production while it is funny is also quite dramatic. There are a few plot twists that took me by surprise when I first read the script, it really made me want to take on the directing role for the play.

After the Lyric Theatre we are going to take this on tour around the province so keep an eye out at your local theatre – it will be well worth a night out!”

We’ll be bringing you a full review as soon as we see the play, but in the mean time you can find out more info and book tickets here.

Richard Clements, Roisin  Gallagher and Darren Franklin in Stitched Up 5jpg

Laura Caldwell

Author: Laura Caldwell

Hi, I'm Laura. I'm 30 years old and have a degree in Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like origami, reading, jazz, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. I've written for The Big List, Culture NI, Chatterbox and The Echo, as well as writing for BBC Across the Line.

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