The Engine

  STEEL MAGNOLIAS by ROBERT HARLING at the LYRIC THEATRE, BELFAST on the 17 th of June 2026 L-R Orla Mullan, Eimhear Jackson, Carol Moore and Marion O'Dwyer in Steel Magnolias, photograph by Carrie Davenport Steel Magnolias is a play that seems to be in the southern Gothic genre but it’s a traditional melodrama, more Meet me in St Louis than A Streetcar named Desire.   The conservative aesthetic means that the play has one set, the interior of Truvy’s hair salon, decked out in lipstick colours and conventional, period furniture (the play is set in the 1980s).    Like Meet me in St Louis the play marks itself out temporally in terms of traditional seasonal festivities like Xmas, the highpoints of the year when families tend to come together. Janet Moran as M'Lynn and Simone Collins as Shelby in Steel Magnolias Steel Magnolias is a dialogue centric drama and plot is virtually irrelevant.   We are told in the first scene that the central character Shelby (...

  TEA IN A CHINA CUP by CHRISTINA REID directed by DAN GORDON at the LYRIC THEATRE on the 6 th of MAY 2026 Amy Molloy as Beth - Tea in a China Cup   The Lyric theatre’s new production of Tea in a China Cup by Cristina Reid is a revival of the 1983 production first presented at the Belfast Festival. Mary Moulds as Sarah and Amy Molloy as Beth - Tea in a China Cup The backdrop to the first scene is a dark tenement row indicative of hopelessness, depression and death.   Perspectival lines seem skewed and offset, the mise en scene owes something to the expressionist tradition.   The sound design consists of traditional Belfast songs and tunes as well as rumbustious orange standards such as The Sash.   The playwright is located in this working-class milieu yet also directs the audience’s attention to other possibilities. The play is rooted in the experiences of working-class women as they experience the turbulence of WW2 and extends through to the beginning o...