The autumnal sunshine looks favourably upon the Stranmillis Embankment today.
With the oak trees retaining full foliage and the Lagan relatively peaceful (bar the odd Hydrobike making its presence felt), it’s a calm and relaxed Saturday afternoon. The sort we should have had plenty of during July and August. Such is life in this country.
Having undergone extensive renovations in recent years, the Lyric Theatre is a flash, modern building that allows visitors to appreciate the parkland of the Embankment (due to the sizeable windows) but also manages to feel like an integral part of Ridgeway Street (which is down to the front of the building resembling a factory).
These contradictions make it the perfect place for The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary.
I spoke to Beano a few years ago about his play We Taught Our Children How to Lie, which was being performed in several venues. He told me:
As I write this review, it has been announced that the entire run in the Lyric has sold out.
With the oak trees retaining full foliage and the Lagan relatively peaceful (bar the odd Hydrobike making its presence felt), it’s a calm and relaxed Saturday afternoon. The sort we should have had plenty of during July and August. Such is life in this country.
Having undergone extensive renovations in recent years, the Lyric Theatre is a flash, modern building that allows visitors to appreciate the parkland of the Embankment (due to the sizeable windows) but also manages to feel like an integral part of Ridgeway Street (which is down to the front of the building resembling a factory).
These contradictions make it the perfect place for The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary.
I spoke to Beano a few years ago about his play We Taught Our Children How to Lie, which was being performed in several venues. He told me:
I have been working for years on a play based on the life of Davy Ervine…In fact, over the years, parts of it have been staged at various events so really that should be my next thing to finish. It’s a pet project I suppose and I feel there would be a market for it if I ever get round to completing.
As I write this review, it has been announced that the entire run in the Lyric has sold out.
 |
| Thanks to Moore Holmes for the use of this photo |
He’s also kept busy with an action packed script which tells the life story of a kid who grew up in the shadow of the shipyard and was strongly influenced by his father and mother (who, he was fond of noting, were to the left of Stalin and to the right of Genghis Kahn respectively) before the whirling dervish that was the conflict engulfed Ervine, leading him to Long Kesh and constitutional politics, where he garnered acclaim from both sides of the political spectrum.
Beano's script has plenty of his sharp Belfast wit (quite a few jabs at Linfield!) but with moments of solemness and pathos that accentuate the narrative. Such examples are the scenes dealing with his marriage to Jeanette and how they kept their marriage together while in Long Kesh, as well as the relationship with his grandson, Mark (to whom the narrative is addressed).
All of the above is further helped by the stylized direction. With the set consisting of two oversized books opened in the middle (presumably acting as a metaphor for how people come and go but ideas are forever or maybe history coming alive) and a mix of lights, dry ice and sound effects, these augmentations embrace the textual nature of the play format, and the end result is something other worldly, as if you’re witnessing a dream.
One person told me that he had walked out of the play because (in his opinion) Ervine’s role in the UVF was glossed over (a relative of this person was injured in the Rose & Crown Bar bombing in May 1974 and Ed Moloney has tangentially suggested Ervine could have been involved in this attack). Admittedly, the narrative does go from him joining the UVF to being arrested in a matter of seconds. However, I would argue that dissecting his operations for the UVF is not the point of the play. Rather, it is to shed light on the motivations of a complex character and chart the evolution in his thought process as well as look at his family life.
Whether that is acceptable or not is for the individual to decide. For me, it is not the job of the writer to educate and to cover everything in minute detail but to entertain and illuminate the audience. Based on these parameters, The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary succeeds.
 |
| Thanks to Beano Niblock for the use of this photo |
An air of sadness hangs over the story, not just because of the personal tragedies and the conflict itself but also for the loss of progressive loyalism, which still exists but certainly not in the same way as when Ervine was alive.
In various obituaries of the man, it was regularly noted that the PUP had lost the prominence it had from 1997 to 2002. The slow demise of the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP, coupled with the rise of Sinn Fein and the DUP (both breaking long held pledges in their pursuit of power) left Ervine and co in no man’s land: seen as too accommodating towards Sinn Fein by loyalists and seen as unreformed terrorists by unionists.
Had he lived to see events from 2010 onwards, how would he have reacted:
- would he have been sidelined like Dawn Purvis?
- would he have gone all in the way Billy Hutchinson did?
- would he have helped to temper fears, ensuring that such flare ups remained minimal?
Obviously, it’s impossible to say with any certainty. However, in his Boston College interviews, he confessed that he was maybe too dismissive of those within Unionism who were fearful about the notion of "Irish culture" being held in higher regard than "British/Unionist culture". Also, this segment is interesting:
Coupled with an admission that the PUP were (at the time of the interviews) going through a “torrid” time, it would seem that Ervine was aware that he would not get what he was struggling for, but he knew that this didn’t mean that he would give up on his beliefs, the very struggle that built him. Not only does this suggest strong principles, but it also brings to mind Jaz Coleman’s line that to understand the meaning of struggle is to realise that it is about “Giving your whole life to a single passion/Which others may or may not/Consider obsolete."
This play reminds us of what we once had, and the political landscape is much poorer without David Ervine.
In various obituaries of the man, it was regularly noted that the PUP had lost the prominence it had from 1997 to 2002. The slow demise of the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP, coupled with the rise of Sinn Fein and the DUP (both breaking long held pledges in their pursuit of power) left Ervine and co in no man’s land: seen as too accommodating towards Sinn Fein by loyalists and seen as unreformed terrorists by unionists.
Had he lived to see events from 2010 onwards, how would he have reacted:
- would he have been sidelined like Dawn Purvis?
- would he have gone all in the way Billy Hutchinson did?
- would he have helped to temper fears, ensuring that such flare ups remained minimal?
Obviously, it’s impossible to say with any certainty. However, in his Boston College interviews, he confessed that he was maybe too dismissive of those within Unionism who were fearful about the notion of "Irish culture" being held in higher regard than "British/Unionist culture". Also, this segment is interesting:
We don’t vote … for what we want, we vote against what we don’t want, so the perceived political bulwark against that which you don’t want is the one that’s trawling in all the votes. That rather tells us that you can have all the agreements in the world but unless you’re very mindful of the needs of the broader public the broader public will rebel…The mood music of hatred and bitterness still exists: don’t be soft on the other, if you’re soft or if you’re perceived soft…there’s a price to pay.
Coupled with an admission that the PUP were (at the time of the interviews) going through a “torrid” time, it would seem that Ervine was aware that he would not get what he was struggling for, but he knew that this didn’t mean that he would give up on his beliefs, the very struggle that built him. Not only does this suggest strong principles, but it also brings to mind Jaz Coleman’s line that to understand the meaning of struggle is to realise that it is about “Giving your whole life to a single passion/Which others may or may not/Consider obsolete."
This play reminds us of what we once had, and the political landscape is much poorer without David Ervine.
📜Christopher Owens, 2023. A Vortex Of Securocrats. ASIN: B0BW2XKJS3.
No comments