WEST Belfast actress Geraldine Hughes is returning home next month with what she describes as a “brutally beautiful” play that examines the issue of clerical abuse.
Written by and starring Jay Sefton, Unreconciled is running at the Lyric Theatre from October 17 until October 19 as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival. Directed by Divis woman Geraldine, she says she is "so proud" to bring the play back home to a Belfast audience.
Set in the Catholic suburbs of Philadelphia in the 1980s, Unreconciled is based on the true story of a teenage actor (Sefton) cast as Jesus in a school Passion play directed by a parish priest. This 80-minute solo performance chronicles a survivor’s journey to confront his past, navigate a Catholic Church reparations program, and ultimately find the courage to speak out. Jay admits that he was inspired by Geraldine's solo show, Belfast Blues, in bringing his own story to the stage.
“It’s basically about this young boy who was cast to play Jesus in the school production of the Passion play and it takes place in the 1980s,” Geraldine told the Andersonstown News from her New York home. “It’s Jay’s personal story and he is a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest and it’s the telling of his story about how this priest, Fr Tom, would basically abuse the kids playing Jesus. However, it’s not just Jay’s story, he plays different characters in the play and he’s very public about the fact that he was very inspired by my own play Belfast Blues. It is a story about survival; it is a story that he hopes will encourage others to tell theirs.”
Geraldine says that despite the subject matter the play is also very funny, telling the story of a young kid in 1980s America “just trying to figure it out”. She says that it also gives a “beautiful insight” into Jay’s father’s perspective when he realises what has happened to his son. “And then his mother has a speech at one point in the play which for me it still takes my breath away," she adds. During the play the audience also sees footage of Jay playing Jesus in the Passion play.
Jay Sefton
“You are looking at Jay today on stage and you are looking at this child with the knowledge of what has happened. It is brutally beautiful and I am so, so proud to be just a part of it.”
Geraldine, who in 2023 produced the Liam Neeson movie In the Land of Saints and Sinners, said she knew Jay in Los Angeles way back in the 1990s when they were part of a theatre group together but over time they lost contact.
“I got this email from him a couple of years ago to say that he was doing this workshop presentation of this thing he had written and so I went to it and I had no idea of what I was going to see and it was this story and I did recognise some of the structure and the way he was playing it and it was a little familiar as to how I would have done Belfast Blues – just in terms of him switching characters – but he reminded me of how brilliant an actor he was and we chatted afterwards and we kept in touch and all I said to him was, I would love to help you in any way to tell this story, and considering the history in Ireland of this particular subject, I thought it would be really important to bring it home.”
Unreconciled runs at the Lyric Theatre from October 17-19. Tickets available here
