A PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN
Written and performed by Geraldine Hughes
Stage Production Directed by Carol Kane
Filmed at Lyric Theatre, Belfast
“grippingly acted…rarely have I seen a one-person show, on or off-screen, that I found so immediately and fully involving.” – Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal
Passionate, riveting, and often humorous, Belfast Blues is a tapestry of autobiographical stories told from Hughes’ perspective as a little girl coming of age in the war-torn Belfast of the 1980s. These stories bear insightful witness to the many faces of “trying to live a normal life” amidst the violence born of the longstanding conflict between Catholics and Protestants. At thirteen, Hughes temporarily left The Troubles to star in a TV movie, Children in the Crossfire, directed by George Schaefer, only to return home to a different kind of confusion and pain.
Belfast Blues, a play written and performed by Geraldine Hughes, was developed in collaboration with Kim Terrell and The Virtual Theatre Project in 2003, and produced by Steven Klein and Matt Shakman, as the first play in Black Dahlia’s 2003 season in Los Angeles. It was originally directed by Charles Haid, with set design by Jonathan Christman and sound design by Jonathan Snipes. Its New York premiere took place at the Culture Project in 2005 under the direction of Carol Kane.
In 2019, after over fifteen years of touring Belfast Blues to worldwide acclaim, Hughes staged her final performances of Belfast Blues produced by herself and Brassneck Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast as part of West Belfast’s Féile an Phobail. Irish Repertory Theatre opened its Digital Fall Season with the never-before-seen video of those final performances in September of 2020.
Read the Performance Program here!
“Outstanding… packs a potent wallop” – LA Times
“a boisterous humor hums throughout…Geraldine is the engrossing anchor of this drama.” – The New York Times
“Takes your breath away” – Chicago Sun-Times
“tour-de-force… a powerful evening of theatre” – Backstage
“Awe-inspiring” – Talkin’ Broadway
“stunning…a bravura performance.” – London Morning Star
“With stories both funny and tragic, she paints a very human portrait of a volatile political situation…Belfast Blues manages to be very special.” – TheaterMania
“This is a masterclass in acting, very well directed by Carol Kane, and Geraldine Hughes proves herself a star performer” – The Irish News
“a stageworthy approach that distinguishes the legit thesp from the storyteller…the emotions flickering in her big, round eyes of penetrating “Belfast blue” are wide ranging and complex.” – Variety
Belfast Blues is produced under the SAG -AFTRA New Media Agreement.
Children in the Crossfire, a 1974 documentary by the BBC explores the realities and effect of The Troubles on the children who grew up during that period in Belfast and in the largest housing estate in Derry, Northern Ireland: the infamous Cregan Estate.
In 1975, members of The Miami Showband, a popular Irish band, were murdered in a terrifying attack by the Ulster Volunteer Force. This remastered documentary, The Miami Showband Massacre, explores the truth behind the tragedy, and gives insight into the deadly and destructive environment in Ireland throughout The Troubles.
Get to know the show’s writer and performer, Geraldine Hughes, in this interview with Irish News‘ Jenny Lee last year ahead of her final performances of Belfast Blues at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
This 2019 best-seller by Patrick Radden Keefe is an intricate nonfiction account of The Troubles, beginning with a notorious murder in Divis Flats, Belfast, the site of many early childhood events described vividly in Belfast Blues.
This non-partisan podcast by Irishman Oisin Feeney breaks down the facts and the accounts of the individuals involved in many of the attacks and heartbreaks during The Troubles.
