“It’s a story about Belfast, but it’s not a story about The Troubles”: Hannah talks to Alice Malseed and Emily Foran, writer and director of The Half Moon

“It’s about strength and hope and women”, says Alice Malseed.

Reading Time: 10 mins

Ahead of its recently announced Edinburgh Fringe run, producer of The Half Moon, Hannah, sat down with writer Alice Malseed and director Emily Foran to talk about Tiger’s Bay, their relationship to home and the theatre landscape of Northern Ireland.

The Half Moon explores the lives of four generations of women in one Belfast family. What excited and intrigued you most about this story?

Alice: I met a woman while I was doing research and interviews for the play. It’s easy to walk past someone and think, oh, there’s a woman in her seventies, she’s past it. But she had so much spark and energy and intelligence. This woman had lived such a rich life. She has so much passion and belief and hope of what she could do with her life - she wanted to join the Royal Navy in the 40s as an unmarried young woman - but it was never honoured because of her family circumstances at the time. I just met her and thought, she represents everything women have to go through. Constantly making sacrifices and being told no, and trying to overcome that takes so much energy. Although she couldn't fulfil that dream, she still lived a very passionate and dedicated life and I thought, this story needs to be told. But also I thought, there's so many potential ways this woman's life could have gone. I wanted to write something that represented that and to honour the strength of women.

“We haven’t explored the experience of the working class Protestant woman enough here. We need to explore their narratives a lot more. ”

Emily:  Alice was commissioned to write a play about the Tiger’s Bay area and specifically about the women of Tiger’s Bay. We got to enter these community spaces and I was very lucky to speak to some of the local women around North Belfast. Through those conversations, the idea developed into a story of these four generations of women, starting from the Second World War. A story about what it is to be a women from Tiger’s Bay during all that time. It's such a beautiful reflection of what it is to be a working class woman in Belfast. For the past 40 years Northern Ireland's had such an intricate series of events in history. It's a reflection of our history here. Especially in Northern Irish theatre, we haven’t explored the experience of the working class Protestant woman enough here. We need to explore their narratives a lot more. 

The historical element is one thing, but it's also each individual experience. Each of our four characters have such unique interactions. What drew me to Alice’s writing was the way each of these women trying to fight out of their circumstances and try to find a better life. And while doing so, they have to make their own self discoveries. Not all of them are able to get out but they're able to understand and settle themselves in the place that they are. That doesn't sound like the best outcome! But Alice's crafted it in a really interesting way. It's not always about getting out. It's about finding your own peace within what you have.

The play premiered in Belfast, didn’t it? How did the local community in Tiger’s Bay react to it?

Alice: My favourite thing that happened was during a post show discussion. Somebody stood up at the end and said, “I'm not from this area, but this piece speaks to all working class women. All women in Belfast. All working class women will relate to this”  And I think that's because of the nuance and the constant little struggles; but also the joy and celebration of family and togetherness and potential. And the kind of DIY, punk attitude that a lot of people will have, you know? They’ll just get on with it. Sometimes, self care is about sitting back and reflecting but for so many people, it’s about just getting on with it. 

What’s important for me is that women have really, really connected to it. So many generations of women, from my age and younger all the way back to women in their seventies and eighties can connect to it. It’s universal.

Emily: Before we did our theatre tour, we did a community tour across Belfast and the first performance we ever did was at the Hoffman, right beside Tiger’s Bay. All of us just wanted to make sure that those women were happy. Once they were happy, I thought okay! We’re good! I really wanted to make sure the women in this community enjoyed it and felt seen, felt celebrated, understood. 

We were very, very lucky to  get to engage  with the community. We went to community halls in Tiger’s Bay, sat and chatted with the women and they were so generous with their time and their stories. Ruby (the performer) and I got to look at photo albums. I just was so grateful that they were willing to open up their past and their history to us and tell us about their lives. And even if it wasn't directly related to the narrative of the play, it really influenced the work that Ruby and I were doing in the rehearsal room.

“I have a duty, if I’m going to be here in Belfast, to find and tell the positive stories of this place”

This story is centred around our relationship with home, our attachment to it and our ever-present longing for pastures new. Has working on the play made you reflect on your own relationship with home?

Alice: Well I left, I went away to university in London, and then I came back. When I was away I thought London was amazing, I ignorantly wondered why anybody would want to live in Northern Ireland? I thought it was backward, there was no progress. That London was so progressive. I thought I needed to be in London. And then I came back to Belfast eight years after I'd left and I realised actually, I could have a say. As an artist, I can have a say in the shape of Belfast, and that's really, really exciting. It made me think, I can contribute to the arts here. I can contribute to the conversation. If I am going to be here in Belfast then I have a duty, as an artist, to find and tell the positive stories of this place, and to ask questions and shine a light on the things that are maybe a bit tricky. To challenge them a bit. I think the role of an artist is to provoke and that’s difficult to do in a small place like Northern Ireland. If you step outside the line you can ruffle feathers. 

But also, the Irish have a huge, hundred-of-years old history of leaving. And that's not easy. It’s not easy to think that there's so many people in my life who don't live here anymore. People I've left and we can't be friends anymore because of geography. Or family; everyone's family has people in Canada, Australia, further afield. There's lots of broken hearts everywhere. And it's tough. It's in our bones, but it also adds a richness of culture around the world.

Emily: Oh god, definitely! As we were making the show, I had a lot of conversations with people about the presence of your identity, no matter where you go. Maybe everyone feels that, regardless of where they live, Whether you leave to find something better, going to the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, wherever. Throughout this process I’ve been very confronted with my own thoughts about identity. 

It made me realise that even though there's this presence of being a Northern Irish woman here, you still can find contentment and like happiness in the community that you find. It's by embracing what is around you.I think this play will definitely make you reflect and question your own need to escape or move on from the place that you come from, if it is difficult, or else leave a place that you've moved to and go home. 

You’ve both mentioned the need for more representation in Northern Ireland for working class women. What do you think needs to change in the industry and specifically in Northern Ireland to make this a reality?

“We don’t hear enough stories of strong women. Universally, we hear stories of murdered women and victims and women in relationship to men but we don’t always hear their determination or resilience.”

Alice: I'm not from that community - I was always mindful to declare that I'm not from that community when I was in the room interviewing or chatting. I would say, look, I'm from a different place. I won’t pretend to be from here, my job here is as a writer. I want to hear your story and get it on stage. I tried to approach it with honesty, I wasn't representing the community from a biography place, but I was trying to serve the community. And not to say that those stories haven't been put on stage before, I would never say that, but we don’t hear enough stories of strong women. Universally, we hear stories of murdered women and victims and women in relationship to men but we don't always hear their determination or resilience. That’s what happens when you live under a patriarchy. We also need training, for women to believe that they can be writers too. I think people absolutely have an appetite for change but as always, it comes down to more money.

It needs money, always money. But we also need to focus on putting these voices on stage and telling their stories.

Emily: That's a really good question. There’s been a lot of events recently arranged by incredible female artists based in Northern Ireland and we’ve been having these conversations around ways we can make the female voice more present in the canon of work here.

“We’ve just had another 10% cut to the NI Arts Council and the whole economy here is really struggling, the arts sector gets continually cut, and cut, and cut. ”

The thing is, there’s a lot of female-led work being developed here, lots of R&Ds, lots of workshops, which is great. Female playwrights are getting the work, getting their voices heard. The problem is that their work never seems to get fully produced, it’s stuck in R&D and getting a reading somewhere and then it stops. And while readings are incredible, it doesn’t equate to getting on stage. And of course the main reason for that is a lack of funding. We’ve just had another 10% cut to the NI Arts Council and the whole economy here is really struggling, the arts sector gets continually cut, and cut, and cut. 

It also comes down to the influences of programming but we’re having a lot more conversations about that and I’m quite optimistic that in the next few years, we’ll see female playwrights being put on the main stages which is really exciting. 

But the main challenge is funding. Northern Irish work is great, it’s so strong here and our funding just doesn’t support us so we have to do the work ourselves. I suppose that’s why women here have this attitude of, we’re going to do it anyway. We’ll do it ourselves.  

The Half Moon is going to Edinburgh Festival for a full run - a whole month! What are you looking forward to most about the experience, either professional or personally?

Alice: I'm really excited about seeing work that’s fresh, the cutting-edge work that’s been made in Britain and internationally. I’m ready to go to Roundabout and see three shows back-to-back and lose my breath because it’s so good. Or to go and sit in the Summerhall Courtyard, have some beers and meet people. I can’t wait to have those juicy conversations with programmers, producers and make connections. I do believe it’s a real site of potential for art and artists.

Emily: The last time I went to Fringe I was an audience member five years ago, so this is my first time going as a working artist. I’m really excited to see how international audiences engage with The Half Moon because, while they might never have heard of Tiger’s Bay in Belfast, I think they’ll still get a lot from it. As a company, we’re very keen to continue the show’s journey to international stages, so I think it’ll be a really beautiful experience to see how different moments in the play touch people outside of Ireland.

And like anyone who goes to Edinburgh, I’m excited to see work that really challenges me, stuff I wouldn’t get to see here. Let’s get the show there first though! I know it’s going to be class. 

Is there anything else you’d like to say about the show?

Alice: Belfast is this amazing, people here have so much energy, they have so much spunk. We're natural storytellers with really dry wit. There's such a strength and resilience. We're definitely a patriarchal country but a lot of the families here are matriarchal. The women here are so strong, and I think the play really captures that sense of The North. It's a story about Belfast, but it's not a story about The Troubles. It’s a story about strength and hope and women.

The Half Moon appears at the Jackdome, Pleasance Dome from the 2nd to the 28th of August at 2:30pm. To support the show with a donation and recieve a free ticket, signed poster or even drinks with the cast and company, head to our Crowdfunder page here! https://crowdfund.edfringe.com/p/thistle-and-rose-arts