Play about RUC and Garda friendships comes to Strule

An award-winning play about a developing friendship between an RUC officer and a Garda officer on the border at the height of the Troubles will be performed in Omagh before becoming one of the star attractions at the annual ‘Prague Fringe Festival’ this autumn.

Produced by Belfast theatre company, Kabosh, ‘Green and Blue’, will light up the stage at the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, and touch the hearts of local audiences, on September 19.

It will also grace the Lyric, Belfast from September 14 to 18, the Ardhowen, Enniskillen on September 20, the Market Place, Armagh on September 21, and the Old Church Centre, Cushendun on September 22, before being staged at the Divadlo Inspirace Theatre, located in the Liechtenstein Palace in the heart of the Czech capital, from September 27 to October 1, 2022.

Written by Laurence McKeown and directed by Paula McFetridge, it will be the first time that Green and Blue has been shown since a highly-successful residency at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 where it won the Lustrum Award for Best Theatrical Moment.

‘Finest actors’

The play stars two of Northern Ireland’s finest actors, James Doran and Vincent Higgins, reprising their roles from the original production, which was premiered at Girdwood Community Hub as part of the 2016 Belfast International Arts Festival.

James Doran plays Garda officer, Eddie O’Halloran, originally from West Cork, patrolling the Monaghan side of the border, while Vincent Higgins is David McCabe, an RUC officer whose experience of patrolling the Fermanagh side is vastly different from his southern counterpart.

Set in 1994, just before the IRA ceasefire, the pair recount their experiences, taking in the history of the conflict in Ireland, how they joined their respective organisations and the day to day life of working in a disputed territory. The play is laced with humour, insight and lots of touching moments.

Despite their different backgrounds, Eddie and David strike up a common bond and begin to learn more about themselves, their similarities as well as their differences. David’s experiences are harrowing, steeped in violence and the threat of violence, while Eddie’s are much more ordinary – except for his occasional run-ins with the local IRA commander.

But there is a brooding sense of how what happens on one side of the border affects the other side. The two areas share a mutual dependence. With that air of comradeship felt by two people doing the same job, the pair decide to meet in a farmer’s field that straddles the border and find out that the ‘grass is no greener for sure’ on the other side of this invisible divide.

‘What it means to be human’

Describing the play as ‘beautifully-written’, Paula McFetridge, artistic director of Kabosh, said it is ‘about what it means to be human in extraordinary circumstances’.

“The play is very relevant at a time when borders in Ireland, Britain, Europe and further afield are such a hotly debated issue,” she said. “Every line of the play is loaded; each scene redolent of the overall tragedy of Irish history and its wasted lives.”

“These two ordinary men represent all of us and our place in a divided land,” Paula added. “It allows us to glimpse the human beings behind the uniform. It eloquently explores the human cost of man-made borders.”

It was inspired by Diversity Challenges’ ‘Voices from the Vault’: Oral histories from former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and An Garda Síochána officers recalling their experiences as police officers during the Irish conflict.

Kabosh is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.

This tour of Green & Blue is presented with support from Culture Ireland and the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council.

‘Green and Blue’ will take place in the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, on September 19.

For more information, please visit: ‘kabosh.net/production/green-blue-2022’.