Sam Cree: Sex, Sects, And Comedy‪.‬

On 25 February, 2005, the Moycraig Young Farmers Club Drama group presented Widows' Paradise, a comedy in three acts, by Sam Cree, in Killygullib Hall (where there was no gospel meeting on that day). There is no surprise in this. Young Farmers Clubs in Northern Ireland offer a social centre to young people in rural areas as well as training in rural skills, and they often produce plays; and when they think of producing a play, they are likely to think of a Sam Cree. The same is true of many talented amateur drama groups in the province (for instance in the 2007 season of the Portrush Summer Theatre, four of the eight plays are by Sam Cree), though professional performances are now rare. Cree, in fact, is thought of by many as the typical Northern Ireland dramatist, and specifically as a dramatist devoted to portraying the everyday life of the region. A characteristic, and well-founded, judgement was formulated by Bernard Adams in the Belfast Telegraph in December 1964. (1) He condemns a revue by Cree on the ground that his talent lies elsewhere: 'Mr Cree's strength is his ear for Belfast speech. he flatters his audience with his ultimately cosy picture of Ulster people and Ulster life'. The widespread acceptance of Cree's plays is again implicit, if not welcomed, in the indignation of a letter writer in the Belfast Telegraph in 1967 (6 November): 'I have just the other evening witnessed the efforts of Ulster's leading playwright, Sam Cree, and I can say without doubt I was shocked to think that such puerile rubbish is applauded season after season in a theatre ironically named the Arts'. It certainly seems that the incorporation of his plays into a popular, amateur theatrical culture implies that his picture of Northern Ireland life is still recognized, and still accepted as flattering. The plays hold up a mirror to the local audience--or did so; and it is well worth trying to define what the spectators saw in them. Their local character should, however, not be overstated. At the time of their writing the plays were popular not just in Northern Ireland, but also in Great Britain, and particularly in Scotland, and several of the first performances took place outside Northern Ireland. Moreover, in reading the scripts, one may be struck to see how often the author leaves local references up to the performers. (2) In Wedding Fever (first produced Bournemouth 1966), there even appears to be a systematic attempt to obscure the Northern Irish origins of the play in that the rival football teams are known as City and United; this despite a number of lines in Northern Irish dialect, such as 'it would be the right fool that would do away with themselves over the head of football'. Other plays, however, display their local reference openly. Widows' Paradise (Belfast, 1966) is subtitled 'An Ulster Comedy' and others give much prominence to local conceptions, such as the alleged miserliness of people from Ballymena, the suspicion of Belfast, 'the city of sin', and, as we shall see, the sectarian issues which are no doubt inescapable in Northern Ireland drama.