Spokesong
by Stewart Parker
by Stewart Parker
Spokesong is a haunting exploration of personal and national history set in 1973 Belfast, focusing on a bike shop owner’s struggle against urban demolition amidst the Troubles.
About The Play
About The Play
Extra matinee by popular demand on Monday 9 June at 2.00pm.
★★★★★ Five Stars, Everything Theatre
Renowned Ulster playwright Stewart Parker’s Spokesong – which won him the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright – opens at the Finborough Theatre in the first London production in nearly 40 years. Belfast, 1973. The city is being torn apart by the Troubles. But to bike shop-owner Frank Stock, the greater threat is the imminent demolition of his neighbourhood to make way for a motorway through the city. Frank thinks what Belfast needs is an antidote to the car – ‘50,000 free bicycles distributed round the city centre’. But the arrival of his estranged adoptive brother and a burgeoning romance bring the reality of the streets blasting through his shop…
A runaway hit at the Dublin Theatre Festival which transferred to both London and New York, Spokesong was last seen in London in 1977. A haunting story, blending song and a century of history, told through the lens of the humble bicycle, Spokesong is a fascinating exploration of how we process our own personal and national history.