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Usher Nonsense Vol. 2, No. 23
BELFAST BLUES written and performed by Geraldine Hughes Original Direction: Charles
Haid, contributing direction by Carol Kane
Set, Light, and Imagery Design: Jonathan Christman Sound Design: Jonathan Snipes
ANJELICA HUSTON & THE CULTURE PROJECT in association with "That's Us" productions
– at 45 Bleecker Street through March (may be extended into April)
This was a show I wanted to like because the staff at the Culture Project is really behind it. Everyone
from the box office to the stage manager likes Geraldine Hughes and the story
Hughes grew up in the 1970’s in Blefast and was smack in the middle of ‘the troubles.” This was the
story I wanted to hear, and when I did I was completely engaged. She slips in and out of characters
like they were sweaters, and we see the every-dayness of life as it collides with tanks and guns
nobody wants. We see her parents and neighbors all moving forward because there is nothing else to
do.
Until the day there is an audition for an American movie. The nun tells the children that if they win
this audition it will change their lives. Geraldine does and the nun is proved correct.
But this is where I fell away because the story of the little girl in the movies was not nearly as
interesting as the little girl on the streets of Belfast. Even when we finally end up back at home at her
father’s funeral, there is still a feeling that she is one foot in and one foot out of the story.
Hughes is better than her material. This play doesn’t do justice to her and left me wondering why it
was a one person play at all. The people in her hometown deserve to be more than a backdrop to her
flight to the United States.
©2005 Tulis McCall