‘Nothing for the likes of us to be afraid of’: Me Oul Segocia review
by Allan LEONARD
13 November 2024
“We’re quiet, decent folk. There’s nothing for the likes of us to be afraid of,” says Danny, who wants to assure his fiancée Eileen that the increasingly deteriorating security situation in their neighbourhood won’t seriously affect them individually. This naivety is short-lived for him and for thousands of others in real life, as a consequence of the start of the Troubles conflict that this play — Me Oul Segocia (My Dearest Friend) — portrays.
Me Oul Segocia was written by Stewart Love contemporaneously in the late 1960s, set in east Belfast in an environment of terraced houses much like that of McMaster Street, actually just a short walk from the recent performances produced by Bright Umbrella Drama Company at its Sanctuary Theatre, from 12–16 November 2024.
Love did not find a company to produce the play until nearly 10 years after he wrote it. Its first appearance was on BBC Radio 4 in July 1979, followed by a stage debut at Riverside Theatre, Coleraine, in May 1980, then transferred to the Arts Theatre in Belfast for two weeks in June 1980.
There are several reasons why this serious yet dramatic tale of civil conflict did not enjoy a longer run.
Surely, one reason was that some patrons go to theatre to be joyfully entertained. Also, others would reply with the fact that they were witnessing the drama in real life. However, the comedian James Young successfully navigated the conflict with humour (perhaps parochially).
Another reason was the changing preferences of theatre companies. For example, in 1959 there was a fallout within The Group Theatre Company in Belfast, when its director of productions, James Ellis, resigned over the decision by its board of company directors to withdraw Sam Thompson’s play, Over the Bridge. From the 1960s, there was decreasing appetite for the dramatic approach and choice of controversial topics of the likes of Me Oul Segocia, in Belfast or Dublin’s playhouses.
In the early 1980s, amateur theatre companies produced Me Oul Segocia. Ivan Little, attending today’s performance, played the character of Danny in the production by the amateur drama group, St Dorothea’s.
Another reason for the unfamiliarity with the play script of Me Oul Segocia was the fact that it remained unpublished for so long. In 2010, it was included in a published volume of selected plays by Stewart Love.
Love wrote up to 20 plays during his lifetime. In addition to those cited above, he is also known for his play, Titanic, which was later turned into a musical.
There is a website dedicated to Love’s work.
Trevor Gill, director at Bright Umbrella, explained how Me Oul Segocia came back to life on its stage:
“Bright Umbrella have very much a sense of place. One of the things we want to do is mirror the culture and history of east Belfast, [where] Stewart Love is from.
“His family got in touch with us and said [that] Stewart’s not really had a celebration of his work. So, we decided to do a retrospective; this is the final event.
“We’ve done a number of rehearse readings; we did a full-length version of his play, Titanic, with a big community cast; we did a lovely celebration of him at the Linen Hall Library; and now we’re doing this professional production of Me Oul Segocia.”
The Sanctuary Theatre is a former church hall. The main entrance leads to a lounge, with a few tables and plastic chairs. There is a bar, with a selection of hard and soft drinks, as well as tea and coffee. Patrons sit in the original pew benches, with soft seat cushions. Like some church services, the theatre hall was underheated; most kept their coats on for the two-hour performance.
Gill described how they acquired the building from the 150-year-old church, which he said was one of the oldest buildings in east Belfast:
“We were looking for rehearsal space and someone suggested here. We built the stage ourselves and renovated.
“Then we got under discussions with the church people, who we were very close with, and suggested to them that we would take a 50-year lease.”
Now under this lease, Bright Umbrella has been further successful in securing a grant of just under £1million from the EU’s Peace Plus programme. Bright Umbrella is one of five Belfast City Council’s nominated capital projects that will receive funding:
“This means that maybe in a year’s time we’re going to close for a year and renovate this building and put it into better order as a theatre.
“It’s not bad. People like it because it’s quirky. It feels as if it’s a lived-in place. We’ll always try to celebrate that.”
Hopefully the result will be lived-in with more comfort.
The play takes place on a single set, centred on a sitting room with a sofa and soft chair, with entries for the scullery to the left and the front door/street on the right. Set production is limited to basic lights and soundtrack, with images occasionally projected onto a back wall canvas. When Me Oul Segocia was first produced on radio, it was reported to have made a powerful impression and translated “wonderfully well” to the stage. This was indeed again the case with the Bright Umbrella production; there is no need for elaborate stage works, with the focus on the excellent writing and strong acting performances.
The play quickly opens with a scene of best mates, Protestant Danny and Catholic Pat. We learn about Pat’s pregnant girlfriend (Annie) and Danny’s fiancée (Eileen). Pat and his mother, Cassie — the only Catholics on the street — are warmly welcomed in Danny’s home (the set stage) with his mother (Dolly) and Uncle Marty.
However, these kind relationships fissure under wider tensions in their neighbourhood.
Danny is surprised and disapproves of Pat showing him his new revolver.
Selena Brown, a sinister character, delivers an eviction notice to Pat:
“Times are changing. Lines are being drawn. You and your mother, you’re living in the wrong place. You must go elsewhere.”
Selena later places a bullet in the palm of Cassie.
Meanwhile, Dolly expresses to Eileen her concerns for Danny’s safety:
“I’m glad [Danny’s]… not about the streets, where he’s liable to get mixed up in this carry-on… It’s like a big octopus pulling more and more decent people into itself every week.”
Eddie Maguire is an evangelical minister who calls upon the services of Uncle Marty to physically protect the local gospel hall from desecration and destruction from increasing nightly mobs. A violent crescendo hits to end the play’s first act.
The second act deals with the multiple consequences; the conflict, far from not hurting “the likes of us”, is affecting every single character, physically and emotionally.
Towards the end, Annie says to Danny:
“Do you ever stop and think to yourself that maybe the best bit of your life is over? That you’ll never have as much fun in the rest of your life as you did in the part that’s past? Do you ever think like that?”
Danny answers, “All the time.”
Annie continues:
“So do I. It comes to me sometimes like that. But maybe it’s not true. Maybe someday things will happen to us, things that at the minute we can’t even imagine… Maybe sometime things will happen to us, and our lives will be rich and happy again.”
While Annie may have spoken about her individual future, one can readily extrapolate it to wider society at that time. In this way, it is sad to think that as Love penned this script, the violence and misery would get so much worse before it would get better.
The play concludes with hope with acts of courage, with Uncle Marty and Dolly deciding to attend the funeral cortege for slain Pat. They are spontaneously accompanied by “an ordinary wee man” in working clothes.
At the time of the play’s debut in Belfast in 1980, the local theatre critic Betty Lowry identified the play as one “that will be remembered and perhaps revived in ten- or twenty-years’ time”. It is a credit to the Love family and Bright Umbrella for bringing this then prophetic and now poignant drama back to life. Me Oul Segocia can well serve us all in remembering our collective loss of tolerance and poor reactions to dynamic change.
Bright Umbrella Theatre Company: Sanctuary Theatre: 12–16 November 2024
| Dolly Marshall: | Mary Jordan |
| Danny Marshall: | Andrew McCracken |
| Pat Doran: | John Travers |
| Cassie Doran: | Cathy Brennan-Bradley |
| Eileen: | Carla Bryson |
| Annie: | Saorlaoith Brady |
| Uncle Marty: | Ruairi Conaghan |
| Eddie Maguire: | Michael Levers |
| Selena Brown: | Julie Alderdice |
| Director: | Trevor Gill |