The Irish Cell

The cell theatre combines the one-act plays of Larry Kirwan, lead singer of Black47, and Seamus Scanlon, writer of Irish short stories, into an evening of provocative, inimitably Irish theater.

Larry Kirwan’s Blood is based on the actual disappearance of James Connolly, trade union organizer and leader of the Irish Citizen Army, on January 19, 1916. He returned four days later, his only comment, “I have been through hell.” Connolly had been captured by the rival Irish Republican Brotherhood, led by Padraig Pearse and Sean McDermott. What happened in that small room changed the course of Irish history.

Sixty-eight years later in another room – a drinking club in Belfast – in the aftermath of the hunger strikes, the bombing of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet and the introduction of a more ruthless and disciplined Irish Republican Army cell structure, a no-less tense situation plays out. Seamus Scanlon’s Dancing at Lunacy is a fictionalized story set in 1984, Belfast, centering on an IRA internal security investigation. The alleged informer and an aging commanding officer are in a confrontation with a young sociopath with a penchant for pistols, The Sex Pistols, dancing, Barry’s Tea and ruthless efficiency.