Everything Between Us

Description

I bit into your heart and I chewed on it slowly like a connoisseur. I swallowed it. I remember thinking it was an especially small heart and easy to digest. But no matter what I did you wouldn't die. A searing and darkly funny two-hander for women which looks at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Northern Ireland, written by the playwright of Cyprus Avenue, David Ireland. It is day one of the newly formed Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Northern Ireland at Stormont. As Sandra Richardson prepares to take her seat on the commission, her long-lost sister Teeni explodes into the chamber and attacks the South African chairwoman, Dikeledi Mashiane. Is this part of a terrorist plot or just her sister's way of announcing her return to Belfast? Deep in the heart of the Northern Irish Parliament, overshadowed by the legacy of hurt, Sandra and Teeni must fight through decades of violence, anger and denial to discover if reconciliation is possible on the pathway to peace. A taut and fast paced two-woman showdown, Everything Between Us is a dramatic, dark, unflinching comedy written by Northern Ireland's boldest contemporary writer. Everything Between Us premiered in Washington DC, USA, in 2011, followed by productions in Northern Ireland and Scotland, winning playwright David Ireland the Stewart Parker Trust Award, BBC Radio Drama Award and the Meyer Whitworth Award for Best New Play. This edition was published to coincide with the London premiere at the Finborough Theatre in April 2017.

David Ireland's work includes Summertime (Tinderbox); Trouble And Shame, Most Favoured, The End Of Desire (Oran Mor); Can't Forget About You (Lyric, Belfast), Half A Glass Of Water (Abbey Theatre) and Cyprus Avenue (Abbey Theatre/Royal Court Theatre). David is the former Playwright-in-Residence at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, and is a recent winner of the Stewart Parker BBC Radio Drama Award and the Meyer Whitworth Award. Can't Forget About You and Cyprus Avenue are published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.

This insightful playwright avoids a neat emotional resolution. He exposes the impact of decades of violence and hatred and leaves his characters suspended [Four stars] * Guardian * The play is so funny - wickedly, irresponsibly, cruelly funny - you might write it off as juvenile in the first five minutes. By its conclusion, though, it seems like one of the most slyly mature pieces about conflict in "post conflict" Northern Ireland yet written. How can we move forward, after everything between us? Not by exorcising the truth, and our destructive tendencies, but by learning to live with them. [Four stars] * Irish Times *