“It’s set in my local park,” explains Belfast-born writer Philip Catherwood (34) of The Pitch, his play inspired by real-life resistance to Gaelic games being introduced to the east of the city.
“I saw a news story about East Belfast GAA wanting to refurbish a pitch in Victoria Park so they could could play Gaelic football and train.
“My dad is from Sydenham and I used to walk my dog there every day, so I knew there were like seven or eight empty football pitches.
“I thought, ‘surely they can turn one of them into a Gaelic pitch?’. Then I thought, ‘I bet someone will kick up a fuss’.”
“Sure enough, when I scrolled further down in the story, local residents had complained.
“As soon as I read it, I was like, ‘that’s a great idea for for my next play’.”
Directed by Thea Mayeux and originally staged at The Space Arts Theatre in London last year, The Pitch is now set for a revival at Theatre 503 prior to making its Belfast debut at the Lyric next month.
It centres on a trio of east Belfast teens: Robbie (James Grimm) and his little sister Melissa (Dión Di Maio) who are soccer-mad, while Deren (Jake Douglas) loves Gaelic football - despite the lack of a local pitch on which to hone his skills.
“Deren is from a nationalist background, Robbie is from a unionist background and then Melissa is a bit more ambivalent to it all - and she also has the opportunity to play Gaelic football at her mixed school,” explains Catherwood of his characters, portrayed by three London-based actors from Northern Ireland.
A chance meeting in the aforementioned local park sparks off conversations, friendship, rivalries and ignorance-fuelled conflict among the trio, in a sports-themed drama exploring the complexities of shared spaces and identity in the north.
The drama unfolds over the course of five years as the prospect of a referendum on a united Ireland draws ever closer - and then becomes a reality.
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“The original version of the play was much shorter, and the characters were just kind of talking about the fact that a referendum was probably going to happen,” explains Catherwood, who has been based in London for the past decade and whose previous plays include the Northern Ireland-set Zig-Zag and Good Gracious, Good Friday.
“Then, when we expanded it, I decided to make the referendum actually happen - because that makes perfect sense for the climax of the play.
“My favourite genre is sci-fi fantasy, so writing that almost felt like looking into the future. It was exciting to imagine.”
However, the playwright is quick to admit that he’s just as confused as anyone about what a reunited 32-county Ireland might actually entail, an uncertainty mirrored by the characters in The Pitch.
My favourite genre is sci-fi fantasy, so writing about a referendum on a united Ireland happening almost felt like looking into the future. It was exciting to imagine.
— Philip Catherwood
“I don’t have the answers,” admits Catherwood, who studied Screenwriting at Southampton Solent University and is currently working on a script for a potential TV adaption of The Pitch.
“I think [in real life] it’s something no-one really wants to get into just because the actual logistics are so difficult.
“But the three characters definitely talk about all that in the run-up to the referendum, so you’ll hear all the different viewpoints.”
He adds: “I’ve been fascinated with it ever since Brexit, really, when the conversations really ramped-up.”
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Indeed, one of the catalysts for The Pitch was another play which explored escalating hostility towards minorities during the run-up to Brexit.
“It was set in a coastal English town just before Brexit happened,” explains Catherwood of the drama staged as part of Theatre 503’s Rapid Write Response programme, where writers pen 10-minute plays in response to another work.
“It was about the emergence of migrant hotels and people from different backgrounds living together in shared spaces.
“I’d actually been wanting to write a play set somewhere other than Belfast - but as soon as I got thinking about those themes, I was like ‘OK, this has got to be in Belfast again’.”
As for the challenge of bringing football to the stage in The Pitch, the playwright explains how one of the cast has also doubled-up as a Gaelic games advisor.
“Jake is from Co Down and he’s a really good Gaelic football player,” explains Catherwood, who says he has begun following Antrim’s (mis)fortunes in the sport since penning The Pitch.
“We really leant on that - he was our Gaelic football ‘expert’. I don’t think he knew how much he was going to be helping us when we started it last year.
“I was like ‘can we do some drills at start of rehearsals?’. So we would get in, warm up, and start doing drills - and then we’d do the script. So that was really cool for me as a big sports fan.”
The Pitch includes scenes where a ball is actually in play between the actors, something which added the occasional moment of unexpected audience participation to last year’s London performances.
“There were one or two times where the ball kind of went towards an audience member,” admits Catherwood.
“One person punched it back, and then another one actually kicked it back.”
Having successfully staged The Pitch in a city where most people beyond the Irish diaspora have no clue about the GAA or Gaelic football, Catherwood is currently refreshing his script for a more clued-up audience on home turf.
However, he is also conscious of maintaining engagement with audience members who are more Robbie than Deren in terms of knowledge and outlook.
“Over here, I would tell people that I had a new play about Gaelic football and they’d be like ‘I don’t know what that is’,” explains Catherwood of The Pitch, which has now partnered with peace and reconciliation charity Corrymeela Community for its upcoming Belfast run.
“But even when my mum‚ who’s from Carrickfergus, came to see the play, she was like, ‘I’ve never watched Gaelic football’, you know?
“So that’s why there is the obligatory scene where the Gaelic football player explains Gaelic football to another character.”
Catherwood admits he also grew up in “an east Belfast bubble” with zero exposure to Gaelic games.
“There were no Gaelic football pitches and I never had access to it in school, so there’s a little bit of me in Robbie I suppose,” explains the writer, who says East Belfast GAA have been very supportive of The Pitch.
“That’s really what the play centres on - a community which hasn’t a clue what it’s all about, which leads to tension.”
He adds: “I think the message of The Pitch is, whatever your opinion of Gaelic football, it’s a fun sport if you just give it a chance.
“We’ve been in touch with Ulster Gaelic Football Association and are inviting loads of local clubs around Belfast to come see the play.
“I think anyone who’s interested in Irish politics should come too, but at the end of the day, it’s a play about Gaelic football - and I want to see as much of a sporting crowd there as possible.”
The Pitch, September 26/27, Theatre 503, London / October 2 to 4, Naughton Studio, Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Tickets and showtimes via theatre503.com and lyrictheatre.co.uk
