THE showband era, love, betrayal and the iconic Floral Hall, will fuse together in the upcoming theatre production Keep Telling Me Lies.
The play tells of the journey of two Belfast women set against the backdrop of the crumbling Floral Hall as they recall the fateful night they met their future musician husbands. Old grudges and sparks fly as they reminisce about the lifestyles of their globetrotting other halves who experienced fame and fortune while the wives they left behind struggled to bring up their young families, working all day and spending countless lonely nights.
Written and directed by Brenda Winter-Palmer, the production has been developed by West Belfast actress Antoinette Morelli, daughter of showband legend Tony.
Inbetween a quick rehearsal break, Antoinette spoke passionately to the Andersonstown News about how she has haboured the project for the past 14 years and how proud she is to see it come to fruition on The MAC stage next week.
“I’m in a wee bit of shock and obviously incredibly excited that it’s got to this stage,” she said.
“Brenda had heard my story about daddy and it turned out that Brenda’s daddy was Micky Conlon, a big concert promoter at that time. I commissioned Brenda three years ago to write the piece.
“We had a read through last year in the Strand cinema as part of the Eastside Arts festival. David Hull the promoter was invited, he picked it up and this is where we are.”
Antoinette plays the character of Rose, “a character that has been inspired by mum’s stories but is not my mum”.
“The story is fictionalised and it’s about two couples, two sisters and the impact the showbands have on their lives,” she said.
Antoinette continued: “With the Miami Showband story out this year and this production the stories are similar in terms of the showband connection but this is very much from the women’s perspective.
“It’s tragic, it’s funny, there are a lot of good treats in there with music from the showband era. The universal heartbeat of the play is our story, the sacrifices women made to let their men go off and pursue their dreams.
“The Floral Hall is almost its own character in the play, after last year’s reading we had so many people come up to say ‘oh we met there’, people have such good memories of the place.
“I know how difficult it is now, in terms of performing, first hand, as my husband is a stay-at-home dad to our 18-year-old and 18-month-old. If it wasn’t for him doing that I couldn’t pursue my career so I’m lucky that is he very supportive. I definitely think people will identify with the show.”
Keep Telling Me Lies will be performed at The MAC theatre from Thursday May 9 until Sunday May 12. For ticket information visit www.themaclive.com or telephone 02890 235053.
