This October, as Glentoran FC prepares to celebrate the institution’s 140th year of playing football east of the Lagan, the story of one of the club’s finest hours, the 1914 winning of the Vienna Cup in Austria is being made into a stage play. ‘One Saturday before the War’ opens on October 6th in the Sanctuary Theatre on Castlereagh Street in the heart of east Belfast.
The play, produced by the Bright Umbrella Theatre Company, follows the Glens as they traverse Europe on the adventure of a lifetime, with the spectre of the war to end all wars looming large on the horizon.
On May the 18th 1914, thirteen footballers, for the most part Ballymacarrett men and shipyard workers, disappeared from the factory floors and paint halls of Harland and Wolff and Workman Clark for a fortnight, swapping their work boots and dunchers for the red, green, and black shirts of their beloved football team. The lads embarked on an odyssey which saw them mingle with some of the richest and most influential people in the western world as they attempted to lift the Vienna Cup.
Written by Trevor Gill and Sam Robinson, the author of the book of the same name, One Saturday before the War sees some of the finest young professional actors in the country take the audience on an incredible journey, played out in a venue literally 150 yards from the homes of George Ferrett and William Emerson, two of the heroes of Vienna and two thirds of Glentoran’s most famous ever half-back line.
Speaking to the Glentoran social media team, life-long supporter Sam couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for the whole idea of a stage play being performed about Glentoran. “It’s a fantastic acknowledgment by Trevor and the folk at Bright Umbrella, that this is a story very much worth the telling, and a tale that not only Glentoran supporters but the people of east Belfast and beyond should be very proud of.
“I’ve never been involved in writing a stage play before, so it has been a real adventure for me too. Thanks to the guys at The Sydenham End, for the duration of One Saturday’s run, the theatre will be decked out in Glentoran flags and banners. We want the audience to come to the show in their club colours, scarves, shirts, the whole nine yards. It’s an intimate venue which lends itself perfectly to the period during which the story is set, we’ve already had several supporters’ clubs booking en masse to come to the show and make a night of it.”
Trevor Gill is the Artistic Director of Bright Umbrella. He has appeared in leading roles with BBC1 and the Royal Shakespeare Company and has directed productions for the South London Theatre Centre and the RSC. He said of the play, ‘It’s a real privilege for us to tell a story that is so rooted in the East Belfast community. Audiences can be assured of some real belly laughs and some tears – thousands of young men, who cheered on the boys who won in Vienna that spring, and some of the team themselves, would, only a couple of months later, end up fighting on the Western Front during World War 1. We also have a number of surprises in store – not least when we finally reveal the answer to the story’s biggest mystery - what really happened to Leslie Murphy, the young Glens goalkeeper ‘lost’ for two nights in Vienna?’
The show runs in the Sanctuary Theatre on Castlereagh Street from Thursday 6th October until Saturday 15th October inclusive at 7.30pm/ (Saturday matinees 1.00pm)
Tickets for One Saturday before the War are available at www.brightumbrella.co.uk priced £15. Senior citizens, students and unwaged £13.50.
Group bookings of 6 or more receive a 10% discount.
All those involved would love to see as many of you there as the theatre can hold and would like to extend a massive thank you to Glentoran FC for the access all areas opportunity at the Oval for the photo shoot.
