Darragh Carville calls for post-Troubles work about the new Northern Ireland
An Irish screenwriter who has broken into Hollywood says it is time for Northern Ireland writers to move beyond "balaclava drama".
Darragh Carville's latest play, This Other City, contains no references to the Troubles' legacy, tortured paramilitaries, on-the-run informers or avenging victims seeking truth and justice. Carville, whose Hollywood-backed screenplay Cherrybomb will be shown in cinemas, says it is up to writers to reflect the emerging Northern Ireland.
His play opens this week in Belfast's Opera House and deals with new post-Troubles themes of the property boom, the credit crunch and the relationship between a self-made millionaire and a Moldovan prostitute trafficked into Northern Ireland.
After recent films and TV dramas such as Fifty Dead Men Walking, Hunger and Five Minutes of Heaven, the Armagh-born dramatist says Northern Ireland is ready to tackle non-Troubles stories.
"It seemed to me that the stories of the new Northern Ireland were not being told," he said. "I just thought that the world of the new city, of swanky apartment blocks, of coffee shops and the new culture was not being reflected in terms of theatre and film. I was writing a play about two years ago and suddenly realised I was writing a Northern Ireland of the past, a drama about the Troubles' aftermath. I said, 'Hold on - I've written this before.'
"It's unquestionable that the place, especially Belfast, has changed massively. No one is saying the Troubles have completely disappeared - recent events have underlined that - but this society is being reborn. These glass towers looming over the skyline symbolise how it has changed fundamentally."..
Read entire article at Observer (UK)
Darragh Carville's latest play, This Other City, contains no references to the Troubles' legacy, tortured paramilitaries, on-the-run informers or avenging victims seeking truth and justice. Carville, whose Hollywood-backed screenplay Cherrybomb will be shown in cinemas, says it is up to writers to reflect the emerging Northern Ireland.
His play opens this week in Belfast's Opera House and deals with new post-Troubles themes of the property boom, the credit crunch and the relationship between a self-made millionaire and a Moldovan prostitute trafficked into Northern Ireland.
After recent films and TV dramas such as Fifty Dead Men Walking, Hunger and Five Minutes of Heaven, the Armagh-born dramatist says Northern Ireland is ready to tackle non-Troubles stories.
"It seemed to me that the stories of the new Northern Ireland were not being told," he said. "I just thought that the world of the new city, of swanky apartment blocks, of coffee shops and the new culture was not being reflected in terms of theatre and film. I was writing a play about two years ago and suddenly realised I was writing a Northern Ireland of the past, a drama about the Troubles' aftermath. I said, 'Hold on - I've written this before.'
"It's unquestionable that the place, especially Belfast, has changed massively. No one is saying the Troubles have completely disappeared - recent events have underlined that - but this society is being reborn. These glass towers looming over the skyline symbolise how it has changed fundamentally."..