JIMMY FAY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

The Lyric is delighted to be presenting the world premiere of Tara Lynne O’Neill’s first play, Rough Girls. Tara Lynne’s play is a glorious recreation of a forgotten period of Belfast history, the formation of the first female football team here during a time of crisis (The Great War), through its celebration of holding everyone in esteem, whatever their background or religious beliefs, to its unfair and dishearting disbandment in the 1920s by the male-focused football organisation.

Tara Lynne’s play is about more than football. It’s also about theatre, the vibrancy, urgency and sheer enjoyment of being a spectator and on the field, playing, passing, and reliant on your fellow participants to get to the goal. These past 18 months of isolation and fear of the Coronavirus have left us all bereft of the wonders of live theatre, the pleasure in companionship and being part of a communal act. It was wonderful to open Dracula, our Drama Studio production, and watch a new generation of actors emerge onto our main stage. With Rough Girls the director Kimberley Sykes and designer Ciaran Bagnall have responded to the challenges of Tara Lynne’s play and transformed the Lyric Theatre into a large and expectant arena that allows the audience onto the pitch and to experience the Lyric in a way it never has before.

Hopefully, we are getting back to some new normal after this extended episode of shutdown.

As I write, I have no idea if we will be allowed to have full capacity audiences in our theatre this side of Christmas. We need to remain vigilant of what we have learnt throughout the pandemic, including how reliant we are on each other, how much we need to experience some things collectively to have meaning and how we need to keep each other safe. It’s a lesson that Rough Girls the play teaches us; that vision and tenacity, respect and care, and connectivity with each other makes us. It also displays how fires lit in one generation can burn bright down the line. Look at the massive success of the Northern Ireland female football team. How it has risen from the ashes and, through persistence and extraordinary skill and talent, has energised us with new hope and belief for the future. History repeats, sometimes in a more hopeful way.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the entire Lyric staff and board for the courage and brilliance each of them displayed in these past difficult months. also want to say how grateful we all are to our many benefactors and supporters for their belief in this theatre, especially in the darkest months. It is life-affirming. I want to thank our audiences, thank you for buying a ticket, thank you for donating, thank you for your belief in the vibrant energy of this theatre. To keep a fully functioning professional producing theatre alive in our city is down to you, our audience, to the talent that exists here, to our Arts Council, to our entire community of benefactors, artists, and spectators. And a special mention to Electric Ireland and Garfield Weston for their support for this production of Rough Girls

I hope you enjoy the show. Take care,

Jimmy Fay Executive Producer.