Fiana Toibin. Picture by Lelo Lourenzo

Shirley Gee’s Belfast play, Never in My Lifetime, is an ambitious beginning for a new theatre company. It’s easy to see why 3 Isles Productions, named for the 3 islands of Ireland, Scotland, and Manhattan, would find this particular play to be an attractive inauguration. The action takes place partially on one island – England, the rest on another island, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles. The characters are English in England, Irish in Ireland, and English in Ireland – boundaries are blurred and then painfully, re-established. Love, war, and national identity are universal themes and make for great theatre but in the singular case of Never in My Lifetime, the question remains whether this is a relevant play.

Just this week, the press announced the destruction of Northern Ireland’s last secret weapon stockpiles after 15 years of negotiation. The biggest news coming out of Northern Ireland right now, thank God, is not a street bomb, but a Mrs. Robinson-type affair between a young man and the wife of a prominent politician whose name is, you guessed it, Mrs. Robinson.

When Never in My Lifetime first appeared, it was a radio play. Much of  it lies in a static tableaux pose. Three British characters usually stand on one side of the stage; their three Irish counterparts stand on the other. All address the air above the audience’s head. The play has a time capsule veneer that distances itself from its audience. The 70s-style, Madonna-inspired clothes, worn by the two young Irish women, is factually accurate but only heightens the “that was then” atmosphere.

There are moments of action: the lovers meet, the married couple spars. In a particularly poignant scene, a young Irish girl (Catriona Rubenis-Stevens), involved with the IRA, dresses her friend for a meeting that is something like a marriage, something like a funeral. Director Tim Ruddy, winner of the Best Director award at the 1st Irish 2009 Theatre Festival, rushes the emotions here. Words jam up against each other like the violence in the streets. What comes out of the chaos most effectively are the Irish mother’s (Fiana Toibin) quiet pronouncements – mediations on the despair around her: “It was a grand street.” Ms. Toibin’s quiet anguish is the most striking stance in the production.

Other notable performances are Nicola Murphy as Tessie, the “soldier lover,” David Beck as the soldier she loves, and Danny Yoerges (Charlie) as his friend in the barracks. In a final, affecting moment, the two mothers turn to face each other – the first time the Irish mother directly addresses anyone in the play. The young British wife (Tammy McNeill) struggles with her grief. The Irish mother has been grieving all along for her family and her Belfast – a city that was “known for its friendliness” and is now “rancid with disappointment.” Never In My Lifetime runs through February 21 at the Access Theatre: http://www.neverinmylifetime.com/index.html

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