`We were willing to die for what we believed in, and yes, I would do it again." That's how Laurence McKeown, who refused food for 70 days before the IRA hunger strike was called off in 1981, sees it. Now, with Brian Campbell, he is writing a musical drama about the strike, for the Dubbeljoint company in Belfast.
The play will focus less on the Maze prison itself, than on the effect the hunger strike had on the outside: "It was a watershed, the start of a whole shift in the republican movement from armed struggle to politics, and it had a huge impact, on society here and internationally," says McKeown.
The play is not cast yet because, Dubbeljoint's administrator, Margaret Fisher explains, the Arts Council has not yet approved the play for a grant. But a decision is due from the council by mid-March and, all being well, the play will open at Belfast's Amharclann na Carraige in May and then tour Ireland.
The Abbey Theatre production of Medea has had a generally favourable response so far.
"Last night Fiona Shaw electrified Shaftesbury Avenue as Medea" writes Michael Coveney, drama critic of the Daily Mail. He describes Deborah Warner's 95-minute production as "brilliant" - "an astonishing production to find in the West End, and one that hits all sorts of contemporary nerves about children as pawns in marriages that have gone horribly wrong". As to Shaw's performance, he writes that she "breaks your heart and yet also achieves a wonderful lightness and even humour along the way", although he adds that some of the "gruesome bloodbath" is hard to swallow.
His counterpart with the Daily Express, Robert Gore-Langton, found it a "bizarre" production, "brutal, nasty and short" in which the best bit was Shaw: "sensational in her black dress and cardigan as she revs up for her horrid deed with a high octane blend of comedy and grief".
Nicholas de Jongh, in the Evening Standard, writes of Deborah Warner's "fierce production that transports the classic tragedy 2,431 years to a semblance of contemporary time . . ."
In the London Independent, Paul Taylor writes: "Deborah Warner's marvellous moderndress production gives you a shattering sense not only of the horror of this act (the slaughter of defenceless little children), but of the tormented psychology behind it and the desperate self-destructive holiness of the revenge the heroine achieves in committing it".
In the London Times, Benedict Nightingale seems more descriptive than committed. "If you seek size, grandeur, poetry and all the things conventionally associated with tragedy, this isn't the production for you. But if you want directness and intensity, you should feel more satisfied." He adds that Fiona Shaw "shows us the female fury that lay, unacknowledged by almost all but Euripides, below the civilised surface of male-dominated Athens . . ."
See review below
Dr Joseph Long, head of Drama Studies at UCD, has given up his chairmanship of the Project's board, but he will continue as a member. He has been chairman since 1989. The new chairperson is another board member, Bridget Webster, who also comes from a performing arts background. She is general manager of Coisceim Dance Theatre and the "Partner for Ireland" in Aerowaves, a network of European dance professionals. She is a board member of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Calypso Productions and the Theatre Shop.
Long's decision was taken this time last year, long before the Project's current tribulations: the visual arts sector's outrage that the visual arts officer's contract has not been renewed, nor has she been replaced. He is adamant that, although there is a perception that the role of the visual arts in Project has been lessened, "that simply is not the case". He speaks instead of "a certain amount of reorganisation" within "budgetary restraints - which are considerable". He adds he is optimistic that a resolution will soon be reached. "Individuals are being approached." However, he is unable to clarify if this means a new visual arts officer is to be appointed.
