"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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