AUDIENCES have been blown away by Big Man at the Lyric, which tells the tale of an older gay man looking for love on the streets of Belfast.
 
Performed as a 75-minute monologue, West Belfast actor Tony Flynn, who plays Mark,  brings an element of raw emotion which could only come from personal experience to the character.
 
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, the Lenadoon man said that it is extremely important to bring LGBTQIA+ stories to the stage.
 
“It is great that more LGBTQIA+ stories are being told,” he said.
 
“It is something that is very important to me, especially bringing the story of a middle-aged gay man to the Lyric.
 
“This is also a working-class experience, and it is great to see those stories coming to the theatre.”

Discussing how he can relate to the character, Tony spoke of how writer Paul McVeigh captured the character perfectly.
 
“It is certainly not my story, but it was written for me. I can relate to Mark, and I think that anybody could. The themes in the play are very universal. It is about love, wanting companionship and someone to spend your life with, but also about loss and grief.
 
“Unlike the character, I spent 25 years living in Dublin. I was born in the Lower Falls and moved to England as a baby before coming back and spending my teenage years in Lenadoon.
 
“The character of Mark would have had a similar teenage experience as a working-class gay man in Belfast.
 
“It was a very different world and things have moved on a lot. I was very young for that time when I came out in the 80s.
 
“You had one gay bar and club, which is where the Cathedral Quarter is now. It was a complete wasteland and not a lot of people went into town.
 
“It was a bit exciting because it all felt very underground, but Belfast is a much better place now.”

Tony said it's the quality of the writing which impressed him most about the play.
 
“It is beautifully written and full of humanity. Paul’s writing is top notch and that was my initial reason for wanting to do it.
 
“Thankfully the Lyric agreed to produce it and it is a great theatre to work with. We also have a wonderful director in Patrick J. O’Reilly, and I was very keen to work with him on this.”
 
Tony finished by telling us that he hopes the play will travel – and given the wonderful reception that it has received at the Lyric, that's a real possibility.
 
“The producers will be looking at giving it another run and it would be great to take it further afield,” he said.

Big Man runs at the Lyric Theatre until Saturday, November 12. Tickets are priced from £12 and are available from the Lyric Box Office.