Telling the story of boxer Gerard McManus and his comrades, Lemonade Sandwich brings something a bit different to the Northern Ireland stage. A true story, portrayed through the medium of a one man show, we follow McManus (played by the excellent Gerard Jordan) on his journey from the Divis Flats to Delhi where he watches his man Paddy Gallagher fight for the Gold.
In 2010, five boxers from Northern Ireland made it to the Commonwealth Games finals. Lemonade Sandwich tells the amazing true-life story of one of their trainers as he attempts to make a round-the-world trip to Delhi to watch his man fight for Gold. We follow his fall from grace as a successful amateur to a life of drink, drugs and violence, and then watch as he attempts to turn his life around to become the UK Body For Life Champion and a successful boxing coach.
At first, I wasn’t not overly thrilled about seeing a show all about boxing, but as the night progressed I could feel myself being drawn in more and more. This is a production from Brassneck Theatre and is written by Mick Draine and directed by Tony Devlin (The Holy, Holy Bus and Man in the Moon) so I had high hopes even though the subject matter wouldn’t be my first choice.
The story is largely told in McManus’ broad Belfast accent with the help of some artsy video clips and a variety of colourful characters which are brought to life by Jordan along the way – my personal favourite is Lego, McManus’ lovable rogue of a best mate who is played perfectly. The play relies heavily on short, sharp interjections (am I using that right?) of music which I feel sound a bit disjointed, were too loud and didn’t run quite as smoothly as they could have, but aside from this I really liked the style. Just one man, a stage and a story to be told.
If you’re a fan of boxing, a feel good story, or just local theatre, then Lemonade Sandwich is definitely worth catching at the Lyric Theatre before it’s gone. Running until 19th September, you can find out more information and book tickets here.
