David McDonald reviews BELFAST 1919
Review by
David MacDonald
Theatre Professor, Stage Director,
Specialist in Text, Speech and Voice
New York City
Belfast 1919 tells the story of a corrupt, deceased businessman and the difficulties his diverse inheritors have getting to the Belfast reading of his will in a Brexit-charged Northern Ireland. The content of the plot is straight from current headlines, with the story taking place on the date of a potentially history altering day. Talented local actors brought the play to life through the use of a unique theatrical language brought to Belfast by Manifesto Poetico, the theatre company currently engaged in a remarkable endeavour called The Epic Borders Trilogy, happening in Mexico, Northern Ireland, and Canada.
The talented actors in Belfast 1919 performed with dynamically effective movement, gesture, and vocal expression resulting from the unique rehearsal process facilitated by Manifesto Poetico directors Carlos García Estévez and Paige Allerton. The cast was empowered to build the show with their own imaginations through a series of freeing exercises, which simultaneously reinforced specific guidelines for creating text and action. Placing the important Brexit Day central to the action of Belfast 1919 further endowed the local cast with ownership and embodiment of their character choices. The process resulted in performances of dynamic specificity that drew riveted attention and explosive laughter from appreciative audiences.
Manifesto Poetico draws technical and emotional inspiration from an anthropological approach, cinematic ways of seeing, and from their original fundamental research, to create theatre for and with the people. The company has created a unique theatrical language called “Spatial Dramaturgy”, where the actors are the authors of their own text and where audience members can recognize their own epic struggles through the comically exaggerated story and performances. A talkback session after the Belfast 1919 premiere drew expressions of gratitude and curiosity from the audience for the singular storytelling they had experienced. Similarly, cast members spoke to the joy and freedom while playing in this new way. “Spatial Dramaturgy” is evolving as a new theatrical language that can engage audiences whose attention is continually splintered by mass and social media.
Belfast 1919 marks the second instalment of the trilogy, the first part taking place earlier in 2019 in Gualadajara, Mexico under the title The Gate of Hope. In each production, local performers also contributed to story content. Belfast and Gualadajara are cities where border politics are hottest, and both productions had great fun illuminating the serious issue of social injustice resulting from greed-driven politics and economic policies. The conclusion of the series will take place in Canada during summer 2020, under the title In the Name of Humanity. Reflecting the first two parts, In the Name of Humanity will highlight borders that have been draw between humans and the ecological world, as well as the ongoing border issues faced by indigenous peoples in Canada and elsewhere. Once completed, the The Epic Borders Trilogy will provide an international perspective on the artificial divisions between people, and how it is our shared humanity that binds us.
To see and read more about Belfast 1919 click here.
