David Ireland: `I find it hard to end my plays without violence`
(The Guardian Culture News)

His plays have shocked audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Is David Ireland bothered about the walk-outs? Will he give in to demands for trigger warnings?Cradling his grandchild for the first time, a man looks into the baby´s face and sees the bearded, bespectacled features of Gerry Adams, former president of Sinn Féin. This would be alarming for any grandfather but even more so to a Belfast Protestant who sees Adams as a threat to the union between Ulster and Great Britain that Northern Irish loyalists cherish.Eric, in David Ireland´s play Cyprus Avenue, is clearly in some way demented, but Stephen Rea makes him a complex and even moving examination of the consequences of one people being raised to hate another. The climax is so brutal that, at the performance I saw at the Royal Court in London in 2016, some audience members walked out. When the play ended, they were telling ushers that theatregoers should have been advised about the content in advance. Continue reading...