Give My Head Peace

That's a real Northern Irish saying and the title of a satirical comedy show that ran here for years on local TV - a political commentary couched in a sitcom and recorded weekly to reflect the goings on of our local politicians and all the other bodies at work all through the Troubles.   In fact black humour was as much a part of daily life as all the rest of the stuff and what kept us sane.

So last night we went to a live show of Give My Head Peace in the Grand Opera House in Belfast and what a laugh.  They had done another 3 TV shows recently and this live show carried the story on - very clever, very colloquial and very very funny.  46,000 people applied for the 200 tickets to the 3 live recordings of the TV shows so naturally this theatre tour sold out very quickly.

You've got MLAs (local politicians not currently sitting in government but still getting paid much to everyone's annoyance), a bad marriage, the police, flags (or 'flegs') a clerical henchman, stand up ... basically anything that can be lambasted and by golly they lambast very well this group - no-one gets missed.

The Opera House is always a delight to visit - built in 1895 and full of elephants and ornate decor, it's a cosy wee theatre.

The woman sitting beside me was a bit put out by the elephants and got worse after she managed to down 4 pints of cider in the 2 45 minute halves of the show!  She reckoned they should be taken down!  

But I love the elephants - it makes me feel like I'm back in a different era and still watching modern theatre.  (Apologies for the photos - it was hard to get anything clear with all the lights on).