THE story of Gerry Conlon’s life after the Guildford Four were freed from prison is set to be brought to the stage of the Lyric Theatre next month.
 
The play, which was written by Conlon’s lifelong friend Richard O’Rawe and playwright Martin Lynch, tells the story of Conlon’s life after release including hanging out with A-list celebrities, the sex, the drugs – but most importantly the pain that was behind the façade. 

Discussing how the story made it to the stage, Richard O’Rawe said: “Gerry got out in 1989 and came back to Belfast around 2005. We grew up on the same street and when he came back we would have gone for breakfast at least once a week. 
 
“One day, about eight months before he died we were walking up Royal Avenue and he told me that he wanted me to write his story.
 
“I said to him that his story had been written in his book Proved Innocent and Daniel Day Lewis played him in Hollywood. He went nuts and said that his real story didn’t start until he got out of jail.
 
“He started telling me bits and pieces but I was working on various other projects and couldn’t commit to it right away. Although I gave him my word that I would write it.”
 
Richard said he parked it and about three weeks before Gerry passed away in 2014, he got a call from Gerry’s sister Anne telling him that Gerry was in hospital and wanted to see him.
 
“I went down and he said that I gave him his word that I would write the book. I said that I would and when it came to writing it, I was very fortunate to get Johnny Depp to write the most fantastic forward because they were great friends.”
 
After the book was published, Martin Lynch contacted Richard to suggest they turn it into a play. 
 
“I saw that all life was there," said Martin Lynch. "You have the joy, the glamour of Hollywood, his friends and then the despair of crack cocaine, hoking in bins in Mayfair, then the redemption of becoming a campaigner at the end."
 
“I asked Richard to write the play with me and it went from there. We would meet in the Europa and then go off and work on four or five scenes then come back and see what we need to rewrite. 

“I had said to Richard early on that I thought it would be a great one man show and because Richard doesn’t have a theatre background he found it hard to imagine that. It was also economic. The cost of theatre means that if you have a play with about six actors, unless you get a grant from the Arts Council you are going to struggle to make it happen.”
 
Richard said he was against a one man show.
 
“I couldn’t see how a one man play would work when we have 32 characters. Martin arranged for a reading and he, myself, Tony Devlin and Sean Blaney had a reading at the back of the John Hewitt.
 
“Sean hadn’t seen the script and when he was reading he was able to flip between characters like it was nothing. I was blown away – Blaney is incredible.”

Gerry Conlon
2Gallery

Gerry Conlon


 
Martin said that Tony Devlin has done a fantastic job with the directing.
 
“Five or six years ago I wasn’t sure about him as a director but he has come on leaps and bounds,” he continued. “The play is an extraordinary rollercoaster of emotions and everything that Gerry Conlon went through I hope we have captured in the play.
 
“When I write plays I always like to have the drama and some comedy because that is the way life is.”
 
Richard added that they had to capture Gerry’s vitality.
 
“What we had as a subject matter was a very complex guy. He is a very special person. He was a very intelligent person and was one of the principle reasons that the Birmingham Six were released.
 
“In between all that you had someone who the women loved.”
 

Martin described Gerry as “mesmeric.” 

“He was enthralling but the real reason this man went on the life of turmoil and pain since his father died, was he felt the guilt of his father dying and that was the reason for his crack cocaine addiction, for his campaigning.”

Gerry’s father Giuseppe went to England after his son's arrest, but he too was to suffer a miscarriage of justice and died in an English prison.
 
Richard told us that Gerry couldn’t sit down with his mother and tell her what happened for over 13 years. 
 
“He carried a huge burden about his father,” Richard said. 
 
“Gerry was a hood," Martin added. "The Officials were after him and the Provies were after him. Giuseppe sent him to London to get away from here.”
 
The play looks at recurring nightmares that Gerry had about his father but also at events such as the Oscars when In The Name of The Father had been nominated seven times.
 
At the time of the Oscars, Gerry had a well-established crack cocaine addiction and spent most of his time in the toilet where he encountered various A-list celebrities from Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams to Bruce Springsteen.

Martin finished by saying that the final scene will leave the audience stunned. 
 
In the Name of the Son runs at the Lyric Theatre from 2 to 14 November and tickets start from £12. You can book tickets here