BELFAST FESTIVAL AT QUEEN’S REVIEW: Black Milk

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The Irish Premiere of Russian playwright Vassily Sigarev, translated into English by Sasha Dugdale, Black Milk is a dark comedy set in the a small train station in the Russian wilderness. The translation fits so easy into an Irish context showing the everyday struggle to survive in tough economic times, and it’s that spirit that our audience best relates and responds to. While the characters speak in Northern Irish accents, the voice of the play is Russian as they show the selfishness and exploitation of the country and how it will affect society and the lives of their children.

BY BRIAN SWANN

It’s interesting how the Black Milk relates to Poppet, the pregnant wife in that she seeks compassion and forgiveness as her newly born children is unable to get milk from her and requires cow milk and wants to her soul to be pure. It’s Amy Molloy’s performance of Poppet that is the strongest in the play as she realizes she doesn’t want to keep up her trendy lifestyle and would prefer living in this remote location.

I found the play to be well acted and liked the mix of emerging and well-known actors within the cast. It’s a difficult play to watch because of the bleak nature and surroundings of the situations the characters are in. It’s quite a thrilling production to witness and I believe you need to experience it for yourself. Black Milk is easily one of the best plays you will see this year on the Northern Ireland stage and is a fantastic follow-up to last years Prime Cut production Antigone at the Belfast Festival .

Tags: Belfast Festival at Queen's, Black Milk, Gown, newspaper, Prime Cut Productions, qub, Queen's, queen's university, Russian Play, student, The Gown, Vassily Sigarev

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Arts + Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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