IF you love Oasis, this play is for you. If you love the Manic Street Preachers, this play is for you. If you love Bruce Springsteen, this play is for you. If you grew up in a house and couldn’t afford to buy records or CDs but loved the bands and were too skint to go to concerts, this play is for you.
Anthem for Dissatisfisfaction opened at the Roddies last night as part of Féile an Phobail. Written by Gina Donnelly, it stars Emily Lamey and Simon Sweeney as siblings Sarah and Jamie, who are born 11 months apart and share everything – especially their love of music.
And this is before streaming music on Spotify, and walking the streets with your AirPods on, oblivious to what previous generations had to go through just to listen to the songs and the bands that they loved.
Emily Lamey as Sarah 
And if that isn’t difficult enough, factor in the economic crash of 2008 and Sarah and Jamie’s parents losing their jobs, and the situation just becomes that little bit more difficult for a couple of 11-year-olds just beginning to find their voice through music.
And this is not your normal theatre experience. Brassneck Theatre Company make you feel part of the action, with the audience sitting at bar tables enjoying their favourite tipple as they’re carried along in this instantly recognisable scene.
There were times during the play when I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, only to be rescued by a belly laugh. This is in-your-face theatre – full on 70 minutes – from the pen of someone who has lived the lives of the characters portrayed by the actors on stage. And it doesn’t feel like acting. You recognise the characters; their situation; their teenage angst as they grow up and their connection to the changing bands and music scene coursing a backbeat through their young lives. Even during times of despair the pair are brought back together as they listen to their parents playing The Jam downstairs, the thumping bass of Town Called Malice reverberating up through the bedroom floorboards.
Simon Sweeney as Jamie
We’re taken into university life and into young adulthood and the self-doubt and fears that come with it, as well as the grief of personal loss; but throughout it all, they have each other and they have their music.
Co-directed by Tony Devlin and writer Gina Donnelly, this is a rip-roaring tour de force that will leave you dissatisfied to the very end – because you want more. A real Anthem for Dissatisfisfaction.
Anthem for Dissastisfaction runs at the Roddy McCorley Heritage Centre until August 8. You can buy tickets here.
