REVIEW: Billy Boy at Strand Arts Centre, 7/8/2021
By Jane Hardy
DURING lockdown, like many of us, playwright Rosemary Jenkinson has clearly been pondering the big questions, including identity.
Billy Boy, her new play which premiered on Saturday as part of this year's Eastside Arts Festival, tackled the whole question of loyalism. It looked at the contentious Twelfth, the bonfires or 'bonies' which take over Belfast every summer and the world of the young guys fired-up atop the pallets (and tyres).
The great set and gleaming orange lights signalled the Loyalist fiefdom. We got a historical frame at the start and end of the drama.
What impressed me was the way the play reflected the sheer excitement and commitment to a cause I've only seen from the other side of the argument. Billy got his rake of cans, dissed the arrival of the peelers, returned to coke with a convincing sniff. And was empathetic. As he noted drily, "I'm only sectarian in Belfast".
John Travers' acting was a real tour de force. He peopled the stage with characters, including his East Belfast Mammy and male mates, brilliant Dino and Jamesy, and even female fans like Kerry Lee (known as 'Dairy Lea', for some reason).
So far, so rootsy, yet there was a building sense of darkness and not easily suppressed violence. This was well done and as a fellow audience member commented afterwards, we expected something "mental" to ensue.
It didn't. Instead we got a second half in which our hero, or anti-hero, who had damaged police vehicles and got a thank-you from one of the local big men, went to Amsterdam and acquired a girlfriend called Yolande. He also got a job strawberry picking. The writing was nice, but this section was rather anti-climactic.
Owen McCafferty's brilliant Fire Below, which played at the Lyric Theatre a while ago, examined the same bonfire issues with real psychological violence via four characters from both sides of the divide observing a fire over wine and acrimony. Possibly we needed to follow through on the bloody truth here.
At the end, Billy and partner returned to the fray, and the bonie, in east Belfast. There was a resolution, with him wanting to become a tour guide for the whole of the city, which is I hope is a point we'll reach.
Matt Farris directed well. Finally, King Billy, who may or may not have been gay atop his white stallion, gave us the final chunk of history.
:: The Eastside Arts Festival continues until August 15, full programme at eastsidearts.net
