The Belle of Belfast

"An old-fashioned play in the best way. It tells a funny, sad, affecting and deep tale of forbidden passion and survival amid senseless violence through a straightforward sequence of exceptionally well-acted scenes, sharply and sensitively written." Full Review

"The Belle of Belfast begins at rest, but never lacks momentum. It opens with a cheeky and entertaining conversation between penitent Emma Malloy and her confessor. Peppered with foul language and comedy, this opening lays the framework for all that is to come...The genius of the play is in the way things that are compelling are juxtaposed with things that are flip. One moment you can be laughing because of a wisecrack, but the next moment, your heart can be tugged by a tender look." Full Review

"A strength of the play is that it doesn’t bang you over the head with history—it smartly focuses on the characters and their reactions to the events going on around them. While the play’s conclusion is somewhat dulled by leaving a few character motivations unexplained, it is nonetheless a poignant exploration of how political, religious and social turmoil can cause crises in both youth and faith." Full Review

"The Belle of Belfast, a little firebomb of a play, is now detonating in one of the best acted productions I’ve seen at this venerable Off Broadway venue...For all its punch, the play leans a bit on melodramatic contrivances, although to expose them would lead to spoilers. Still, the vigorously stageworthy dialogue, the heated issues broached, the colorful characterizations, and the uniformly three-dimensional acting satisfactorily cover the holes." Full Review

"The characters don’t renounce their faith or their political convictions in 'The Belle of Belfast.' But they question both, and that makes for very rewarding drama." Full Review

"Against the backdrop of war torn Belfast, the playwright infuses his potentially lugubrious story with humor. Mr. Edelman has a gift for dialogue and knows precisely how to balance wit with serious subjects. 'The Belle of Belfast' is thoroughly entertaining." Full Review

"So compellingly human...This ninety-minute production shows impressive efficiency in developing compelling characters with whose struggles we can empathize, regardless of how far we might be removed from Northern Irish violence. Anchored by dynamic performances, the production approaches violent political turmoil on the level of warm and insightful personal struggle." Full Review

"Like most ethnic theatre, 'The Belle of Belfast' tells one story in the specific experience of one group of people. Unlike most ethnic theatre, the show also transcends time and place and culture to strike at more universal themes. This play, with some obvious rewriting for dialect and place, could just as easily be set in South Central Los Angeles today as it is in West Belfast 1985." Full Review

"A gritty, grey area of brick wall and barbed wire, juxtaposed with a Rectory, embody the profane and the proper – the refuge of religion in contrast to the unrelentingly mundane...The play is tight, intelligently placing its core themes – aspects of love, disaffection, loneliness, bigotry – in the framework of a war zone, where all bets are off and death may be around the next corner." Full Review

"Of the characters, only Anne is shown as having multiple dimensions, and she actually does change and grow over time. She makes the most of the part, and it is both exciting and scary to watch her in her unpredictability. The rest of the cast does nicely within the limits of their sketchy roles, but the play feels unfinished, leaving us with our unanswered questions about the fate of this embattled community." Full Review

"Much of Edelman's play is devoted to Ben's struggle, which is a shame since there's little or no fire to it. We see that the priest is not happy but get no meaningful sense of the nuts and bolts of his internal conflict...The other characters all brim with life, even Father Behan drowning himself in drink and Emma, searching in vain for nonexistent sins. But, except for his intimacy with Anne, all Ben does is emit words." Full Review

"Just when you think Belfast is going to be an irreverent comedy, it drops the humor and becomes a meditation on religious violence. Just when you think it’s a meditation on religious violence, it drops the fervor and becomes a coming-of-age story. With only ninety minutes of runtime, entire scenes that feel unnecessary, and one too many sentimental Irish folksongs, Belle never quite picks up steam." Full Review

"None of the people in 'The Belle of Belfast' are sufficiently interesting; they tend to state their problems over and over until they become tiresome...There's rich material here, but it barely skims the surface. The story of a destabilizing passion, it never strikes fire, nor does it draw on its rich and tragic background for real emotional heft." Full Review