When playwright Fintan Brady first heard the stranger than fiction events surrounding a family of renowned spiritual mediums, the Golighers, from South East Belfast, he knew it was a story he couldn’t let rest in peace.
His theatre Company, Partisan Productions, empathetically re-imagines the tale into a new fictional play ‘A True and Tested Account of Certain Mysterious Events which have recently occurred in Mersey Street’. The show opens on the 11thApril for a four-day run of performances at the Engine Room in Portview Trade Centre in Belfast.
Partisan collaborator, Reggie Chamberlain-King, had researched the story of the Goligher family for his book ‘Weird Belfast’. Kathleen Goligher, held séances which were regularly observed and investigated by a Doctor of Engineering at Queen’s University, Dr W J Crawford from 1914. Crawford attributed levitating tables to the physical force of rods of ectoplasm, exuding from the young lady’s person, which he wrote about in three books that are in circulation to this day.
Brady explains how he was “intrigued by the story and the need for injured personalities to collude in comfortable self-delusions “. Using the Goligher tale as a starting point, the plot fast forwards to a 1920’s Belfast emerging from the Spanish Flu pandemic and blighted by Sectarian riots. James Lecky plays the role of Dr Dawson whose life is in chaos, as he embarks on a relentless mission to explain the strange phenomena occurring in a small house on Mersey Street. A young medium played by Carla Bryson hosts a strange array of visitors, but which ones are truly of this realm and which are the ‘operators’? Above all, if there is deception at hand, who is deceiving who and where might it lead?
Brady describes the piece as an investigation of generosity and explains that “the great thing about stories of the supernatural is that they should always offer more questions than answers”
The theatre piece has been part of a wider community project involving local young people from Inner East Belfast. Roz Small, from the Ballymac Friendship Trust says ‘We’d like to thank Urban Villages who supported us in giving local young people hands on skills and experience in stage production as part of their accredited OCN qualifications and help them gain employment in our thriving creative industry in Northern Ireland ’.
In the true spirit of community arts, admission to the show is free, thanks to other supporters including the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council and the Community Relations Council.
Performances will be in the Engine Room of Portview Trade Centre, from 11thApril to 14thApril at 7.30pm. Designer Conleth White and Musical Director Reggie Chamberlain-King have transformed the cavernous room with deep red lighting, steampunk effects and original music performed by a live band to create an immersive Edwardian tale offering a timeless exploration of human loss, yearning, regret and the need to connect.
Although admission is free, booking is advised, you can reserve seating by contacting Karen on 07701008852 or sending an email to partisanproductions@hotmail.com.
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