In the Name of the Son at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast
In my end is my beginning. The stark first scene of In the Name of the Son by Richard O'Rawe and Martin Lynch for Green Shoot Productions, which finally opened at the Lyric Theatre after various lockdowns, has Gerry Conlon declaring he's ready to die.
"I would have settled for six months, enough time to say goodbye to everyone, but now it's kick the bucket time."
Of course, that isn't the case, yet, and Shaun Blaney, a very engaging actor in this one man, multiple characterisation drama, goes on to tell us with a cheeky grin what happened in England in the early 1970s.
Our not-quite-hero, the Belfast boy from the Lower Falls who does "bespoke" shoplifting and cheeks his da Giuseppe, seems destined to continue his merry way.
What cut this short was Conlon's move to London during an IRA bombing campaign and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We know about the way the British police stitched him up, wrongly, for the Guildford bombings and then tortured him into a signed confession. The details were harrowing.
The first half of the play followed the narrative also covered in Gerry Conlon's autobiography.
It's powerful witness material, with a surprising amount of humour including nice vignettes of Gabriel Byrne (who didn't take on the role as Gerry in the film), Daniel Day Lewis (who did) and film director, a wonderfully manic Jim Sheridan.
The second half takes off as Conlon descends into a drug-fuelled hell.
He's met Bruce Springsteen in the urinals at the Oscars (when In the Name of the Father was nominated seven times... and lost out seven times) but is still traumatised by his father Giuseppe's death inside.
This was his fault, he feels, as his dad flew over to help him mount a defence, was also framed and never left gaol.
Possibly the most moving scenes showed the son making peace with his ma (whom the actor conveyed superbly in a tête-à-tête) and ultimately with himself.
Heaney wrote mid-Troubles "the 'voice of sanity' is getting hoarse". Not here. In the Name of the Son is maybe slightly long but it's a real testament to the fight for justice.
