Theatre Review: Pentecost – Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Pentecost, the last play by the late and great Stewart Parker, is set in 1974 Belfast amidst one of the many peaks of political tension and fierce civil unrest that affected the city during the troubles. As the Ulster Workers Council strike of 1974 plays out menacingly on the city streets outside, we take refuge with our four protagonists in the last terrace house left standing in a suggested damp and dingy slum area of Belfast.

The opening scene begins with Lenny (Paul Mallon) playing his beloved trombone in a house which he has just inherited from a hard-line Protestant lady, Lily Matthews. Situated in Ballyhackamore, we are dropped into the heart of industrial east Belfast, adjacent to the shipyard. Lenny’s estranged wife Marian (Judith Roddy) comes to buy the property from Lenny and moves in immediately to seal herself off from the brewing tensions outside and to deal with her own inner turmoil. We soon realise she is not alone however, when the ghost of Lily Matthews (Carol Moore) appears, and throughout the rest of the production we watch as their dialogue unfolds complexities that haunted Lily’s life while she was still alive. The tensions outside the walls soon manifest themselves inside when, one-by-one, Marian is joined by Ruth (Roisin Gallagher), a childhood friend of Marian’s who is escaping from an abusive husband; Lenny, who’s home has been burgled; and Peter (Will Irvine), Lenny’s old friend who has returned from Birmingham with bags of muesli and various bottles of alcohol.  The play itself is excellently crafted.  Despite its bleak backdrop you find yourself frequently uplifted by comical anecdotes throughout, which allow the audience to breathe inside an otherwise concentrated atmosphere.

Alyson Cummins has excellently designed a foreboding set, displaying the interior of a dilapidated parlour house which reflects both the gloomy desolation of Belfast at the time and the solemn hearts which occupy the household within.  Carol Moore convincingly plays the bible thumping protestant ghost of Lily Mathew’s with the energy and bitter confusion witnessed by many during a lifetime of religious and political upheaval. Local history is an overwhelming force dominant throughout the play. Parker himself said that “Plays and ghosts have a lot in common. The energy which flows from some intense moments of conflict in a particular time and place seems to activate them both”.  This is all too evident in Pentecost.  Judith Roddy as Marian offers a quick witted yet sombre soul who has become embittered by a life steeped in both tragedy and monotony. Her on-stage interaction with estranged husband Lenny offers both comic relief and an edge of exhausted contempt, while their personal history slowly unveils why.  Paul Mallon plays Lenny, a university drop-out and struggling musician, who is at odds with everything around him, from his failed relationship with Marian to local religion as a destructive force in our society. In one scene his interaction with Will Irvine (playing Lenny’s friend, Peter) holds the audiences gaze in captivated silence as he talks about loss and his time with the estranged Marian.  Will Irvine injects great energy into the entire production, his performance is expressive and entertaining while his interactions with the other characters on-stage brings individuality and new vitality to each scene.  Roisin Gallagher plays a powerful performance as an abused housewife escaping from an abusive RUC husband and her scenes with Irvine bring further dynamics to an already multi-layered show.

Pentecost is a powerful production which uses a perfect balance of humour and drama to express conflicting themes of our past and reoccurring issues of discontent and hope which echo within northern Irish society today. The social themes portrayed within the play are equally as enthralling and pertinent today as they were in 1974.  Director Jimmy Fay has offered Belfast an excellent chance to see Stewart Parker’s last great work reborn.