Lynx Theatre and Poetry

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Constance Markievicz being the first woman elected to the British Parliament, Lynx revived its highly praised production of Rebels and Friends with the support of Arts Council England and the Irish government's Emigrant Support Programme.

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This play is the story of the Irish sisters Constance Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth:

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• Con a leader of the Easter Rising – Eva the pacifist;

• Con the first woman elected to the British parliament in 1918 and the first Labour Minister of the Dail – Eva the campaigner for women’s rights and trade unions in North West England;

• Con the artist – Eva the poet;

• Con who married a Polish count – Eva the partner of Esther Roper.

 

This unique production united the political and the personal sides of the sisters’ lives  in an extraordinarily rich style of production created by William Alderson. The play presented Con and Eva’s story as if though their eyes and ears, using:

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• A large cast of recorded voices.

• Some 600 images, including a wealth of historical material from the National Library of Ireland, the Sligo Museum, the Imperial War Museum and elsewhere, together with specially commissioned photographs of Ireland, England and Italy.

• Recordings of Irish harp music played by Grainne Yeats, songs performed by Dominic Behan and fiddle music by Michael Coleman.

• Several of Eva’s poems, with an edition of Poems from the Play, hand-printed to coincide with the revival.

• Finally, parts were danced, choreographed by Siân Williams (Master of Dance at the Globe Theatre and choreographer for the BBC’s Wolf Hall).

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It is no wonder that reviewers for the new production agreed with those for the original one. In 1980, the Cork Examiner described the production as a play where:

 

“History comes to life, transcending mere scholarship … There is a documentary sweep which lifts it above mere theatre and unfolds history in quite the most absorbing fashion … Lovely performances give it soul … Quite remarkable.”

(Cork Examiner)

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Reviewers of the new production said that:

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“William Alderson’s production was superb ... an unusual and imaginative production in that it incorporates and unites all the arts: poetry, art, music, dance and drama ... a tour-de-force duet of acting and dancing, beautifully choreographed by Sian Williams.”

(Counterfire)

and that it was

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“expertly directed by William Alderson, who magically creates an entire era without props”

(The Morning Star)

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