‘The Belle of Belfast,’ a Pressure Cooker of Moral Quandaries
Andy WebsterApril 24, 2015: Just before Nate Rufus Edelman’s winning drama “The Belle of Belfast” begins, the buzz saw intensity of Stiff Little Fingers’ republican anthem “Alternative Ulster” and John McDermott’s set — an imposing exposed-brick wall covered with graffiti and topped with barbed wire — signal that you’re in the caldron of Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1985. Add John Larson’s black-and-white projections from the bloodstained history of the Troubles, and throw in the hormones and caustic temperament of a 17-year-old live wire, and you’re in a pressure cooker at steam heat. The Belle of Belfast Anne Malloy (Kate Lydic), a red-haired teenage bundle of rage, profanity and casual lust, has been raised by her dotty great-aunt Emma (an artfully amusing Patricia Conolly). Emma seeks social companionship in the confession booth with the patient priest Ben Reilly (Hamish Allan-Headley); Anne seeks Ben’s companionship as well, but not of the ecclesiastical variety, and Ben, who merely wants to tend a flock rattled by the city’s endemic violence, must keep her at bay.
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