Love, Billy

As part of its Belfast season, the Lyric is thrilled to be working with Graham Reid on bringing back Belfast's most famous family for a fifth instalment in the now legendary series of Billy plays.

Love, Billy sees Billy Martin returning to Belfast after 25 years away. He left without warning or informing anyone and now all of the Martin family are awaiting Billy's arrival to celebrate their father Norman's 74th birthday. They haven't seen Billy in all that time and still have no inkling of why he left. There are family grudges to be resolved and Billy's story to be revealed, at the heart of which is a man struggling to adapt to a family and city he knew so well but hardly recognises any more.

First televised by the BBC in the 1980's, as part of the infamous Play for Today series, the Billy plays made a huge impact not only across the island of Ireland but also the whole of the United Kingdom. For the first time audiences got an insight into a Protestant family home in Belfast and realised that away from the violent social conflict, similar family problems faced us all, a theme to which Reid also turned in his seminal stage plays The Hidden Curriculum and Remembrance.

Wednesday 1 - Saturday 25 May
Previews Sunday 28 April 2.30pm / Tuesday 30 April 1.30pm & 7.45pm
Tuesday - Saturday 7.45pm / Saturday & Sunday 2.30pm / Thursday 23 May 2.30pm