Ulster American – Riverside Studios
A play about an American actor and English director and an Irish playwright sounds like the combination of two rather bad bar jokes but that is what David Ireland’s play Ulster American presents. While it might have been expected to be about the legitimate differences in the creative process between actors, writers and directors. In fact, it was a conflict between three rather implausible characters.
Jay Conway, played by Woody Harrelson, is the American actor, with a glittering Hollywood career behind him. He has a great sense of his own importance and of being right even when he is clearly in the wrong. He carries his Oscar around with him to remind himself, and others of his omnipotence. From the beginning of the play, having only just recently arrived from America...
