IT HAS been suggested that Graham Reid’s plays are pungent with “the thick and acrid air” of Belfast. Any actor performing one of these production in The Lyric Players Theatre in Belfast at this point in time would certainly know if that statement is true. Amanda Hurwitz is appearing in Reid’s The Hidden Curriculum, which opened on January 27th. Does she feel that the play, written over a decade ago and set in the early ’70s, captures the thick and acrid air in Belfast today?

“Yeah, and I think it takes the middle class into account, which is what’s really unusual about the play, in terms of Northern Irish writing,” she says.

“It focuses as much on the middle class, within the context of what is happening within working class areas, in relation to sectarian violence. What you have is the kind of middle class, apologist, guilty Protestant schoolteacher who tries to make contact with the father of one of his former pupils, when he learns that the pupil is in prison for life having shot four Catholics. And this comes as an utter shock to the Protestant, because this kid was a really good pupil. And he’s forced through this to question everything, particularly his status as a teacher in the community.”

Part of this process of re-examination involves the teacher facing the dilemma of whether he should continue to teach his students according to the curriculum or, instead, opt for preparing them for life on the streets.

“But to me, what is really frightening about the play is that the stuff that has dated is the educational aspect, in that sense, not the paramilitary angle,” muses Amanda. “There has been a change in the national curriculum over the past two decades although there still are the core problems that stem from the teaching of Irish history. In Protestant schools you still are rarely taught Irish history, with any degree of seriousness. As in, what is the real story behind King Billy, and so on.”

In the cast list Amanda Hurwitz is described as playing “Eric’s woman, Ruby.” Eric is the former pupil’s father, who previously had been a key figure in the Protestant paramilitary forces yet who is now living under siege because he informed on his own son. Does she relate in any way to the role?

“The key to it, actually, as far as I’m concerned, has not been any of the obvious political stuff but something that has more to do with sexual politics,” she suggests. “Her role really made me think how much you would have to really love someone to put up with what she endures. And she does really love him. But it’s the kind of extraordinary commitment which I, as a woman, find hard to relate to because I come from a different physical, and psychological space. It has never occurred to me that I am only half of a whole. There’s a part of me that hankers after (a) wanting it and (b) achieving it. But the PC consciousness in me says ‘Oh come on, as a woman I am complete onto myself’. But on dark, lonely nights maybe a person doesn’t hear that voice quite so clearly! But, as such, playing Ruby is a hell of a challenge for me.”

Also recommended: Moving from Belfast to Galway, the Punchbag Theatre Company is presenting William Mastrosimone’s Extremities at Nun’s Island Arts Centre. The play focuses on the sense of helplessness felt by a woman in a situation where a man has entered her apartment with the express aim of raping her. For two years after the play was originally written no producer would stage it and soon after it was first performed it was banned. However, after the movie rights were sold and a New York production was staged Extremities travelled the world, provoking both loathing among audiences, and praise. See it and decide for yourself.