OVER THE BRIDGE Runs in 1st London Production in 50 Years at Finborough Theatre, Now thru May 14

Lightbox Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre presents OVER THE BRIDGE by Sam Thompson, directed by Emma Faulkner in the first London production in over 50 years of this classic Ulster play.

"I sometimes compare people with a story my father used to tell me when I was a wee girl. About how they built a boat in the shipyard, how they started from her keel plate and built her up, riveting and welding her plates to a sound structure... And when she was finished, she'd sail down Belfast Lough and into the ocean to be lashed and buffeted by storms. But dad always said that he could be sure of one thing, she'd come through it all in one piece. Isn't it a pity people couldn't be like that?"

The first GB production in over fifty years of the classic Ulster sectarian drama, Over The Bridge by Sam Thompson, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances from tonight, 28 April 2013 (Press Night: Monday, 29 April 2013 at 7.30pm).

Set in the Belfast Shipyard of the 1950s and against the backdrop of the IRA's Border Campaign, Sam Thompson's seminal 1960 play is a powerful exposé of Ulster's sectarian bigotry and violence before the eruption of the Troubles.

Peter O'Boyle, a Catholic shipyard worker, has become the target of a vicious whispering campaign. Veteran Trade Unionist Davy Mitchell, a Protestant who has spent his life fighting for others' right to work, is keen that the Union does what it can to protect him. As tensions mount and the union begins to split on sectarian lines, mob rule starts to take over...

First staged in Belfast in 1960, the play was produced against a backdrop of controversy when the Ulster Group Theatre withdrew it for being a play that 'would give rise to sectarianism of an extreme nature'. Its original production, directed by James Ellis, and starring J. G. Devlin, Joseph Tomelty and Harry Towb, played to an audience of 42,000 people during the six-week run, far greater than had attended any play in Belfast previously. It was seen on tour in Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton and the West End, and was adapted for both radio and television.

Described by The Irish Times as "a brickbat hurled violently against bigotry", this Northern Irish classic continues to provoke uncomfortable questions about unity, tolerance and the rules we live by today.

Playwright Sam Thompson (1916-1965) was a seminal Northern Irish playwright, best known for his first play, Over the Bridge (1957). The play was first staged in Belfast in 1960, in the troubled aftermath of the Ulster Group Theatre's decision to withdraw it for production. The play went on to have runs in Dublin, Brighton and London. Thompson's other plays include The Evangelist (1961) and the television play, Cemented with Love (1964). A draft of a further play, The Masquerade, set in London, was completed just before his death. Thompson wrote several plays for radio which were broadcast by the BBC including Brush in Hand (1956), Tommy Baxter, Shop Steward (1957), The General Foreman (1958), The Long Back Street (1959),The Fairmans: Life in a Belfast Working Family (1960-1). Thompson spent most of his working life as a painter in the Belfast shipyards, starting aged 14 at Harland and Wolff, and was an active trade unionist all of his life. He also ran for the Northern Ireland Labour Party in the 1964 General Election.

Director Emma Faulkner received the 2010 Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme bursary in association with The Young Vic. Her directing includes London 2012: Glasgow (Theatre Uncut at the Bussey Building), Christmas The Musical (Battersea Mess and Music Hall), The Scared Ritual of the Nymphs of Natterjack, part of Bush Bazaar (Bush Theatre), Different is Dangerous (Tamasha), After the End (Dundee Rep and Pleasance, Edinburgh), The Mracle (Dundee Rep), Forfeit, What Love Is (Òran Mór and Dundee Rep), The Ruffian on the Stair, Making Good, Absolute Return (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) and Knives in Hens (St Marys at BAC). Associate Direction includes Sunshine on Leith (National Tour). As Assistant Director, she has assisted Alan Ayckbourn on Taking Steps and other credits include Sleeping Beauty; A Doll's House (Dundee Rep), Alison's House, Spring Shakespeare, The Lady or the Tiger and The Ring of Truth (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond). She is also a script reader for The National Theatre of Scotland and Tinderbox.

Finborough Theatre is located at 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. Box Office 0844 847 1652. Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk. The show runs Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, 28, 29, 30 April, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 14 May 2013, playing Sunday and Monday evenings at 7.30pm. Tuesday matinees at 2.00pm. Tickets £14, £10 concessions. Performance length: approximately two hours.

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