Another good local programme shock! 'Sons of Ulster'

I am no fan of the Northern Irish actor Dan Gordon. He is best known for his role in the execrable comedy series Give My Head Peace and the other part which brought him to prominence was the lead in Marie Jones’ One Night in November – a ‘play’ which makes it its business to demonise fans of the Northern Ireland football team.

This week however, BBC NI have been showing a fascinating programme in which Gordon directs a group of prisoners from Belfast’s Hydebank Wood Young Offenders’ Centre in a performance of Frank McGuiness’ play ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme’. The programme followed the process of Gordon selecting his cast and rehearsing the play with them over a number of months.

Last night the four part series culminated with a performance of the play given to a selection of fellow inmates, staff of the prison and a rather arbitrary group of local luvies. However it was the process of cajoling the prisoners to produce the performance through a mixture of encouragement, argument and bribery which was most compelling.

The programmes showed the dynamic which establishes itself in these institutions where any spark of individuality or initiative can be the catalyst for abuse or violence on ‘the landings’. The cast shouted, swore, walked-out, disrupted and attacked each other with dummy weapons, but eventually managed to coalesce and deliver a creditably raw performance of a powerful play.

Ultimately it seemed plausible that (as the governor of the prison believed) the play had genuinely been the positive experience that the inmates insisted it was. They did seem to progress in terms of teamwork, focus, confidence and ambition through the exercise. Some no doubt will re-offend, but others may have been profoundly changed by performing this play.

It has been many years since I have seen the play (on a school trip in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre) and it was certainly apposite material for a group of errant young men. The parallels between the characters in the play and the prisoners who played them were evident. The inmates understood the characters and their situation innately and there were members of the group who actually were filled with enthusiasm when they spoke of the play and its themes.

For this reason alone this series was a remarkable success and for his patience and hard work Gordon deserves credit. On a side note, this series was to be shown some months ago and was pulled at the last minute. I can only assume the unidentified splodge who had clearly been edited from the final programmes was something to do with this late withdrawal.