‘Dancehall Sweethearts,’ is set against the background of the sectarian civil war which tore Northern Ireland apart in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The play looks at how such a conflict can draw in the unwilling, transforming their lives and those of friends and enemies.
‘Dancehall Sweethearts’ centres round the character of Donal whose love for music leads him to the dancehall where loves and hatreds are played out to devastating effect.

Dancehall Sweethearts at the Camden Fringe.

After a sell out run at the Abbey Theatre Studio last month, Mial Pagan’s new play Dancehall Sweethearts transfers to Upstairs at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate for the Camden Fringe in August.

Dancehall Sweethearts is a thought-provoking play capturing the tensions and conflict in sectarian Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles.
Reviewing the Abbey Theatre performances, Jacky Eyres writes: “The sparse set matches the tautly unfolding drama, and the acutely observed dialogue moves lightly through tenderness, bitter regret and recrimination, to the possibility of forgiveness.
Convincing performances from the cast bring the drama vividly to life as we follow the sweethearts’ journey from youthful innocence to inescapable despair. This is an engrossing, must see production”.

Political satire National Trust has wannabe PM Peter Fraser and brilliant journalist Eleanor Perry at its heart. Equally ambitious, cynical and ruthless, they align in their journey towards positions of highest influence and power in politics and journalism. Personal gain outweighs public responsibility and comes at a terrible cost to the country when Britain is pitched into a state of chaos by Fraser’s policies and his weakness in the face of a hard-line group in Cabinet. It is disturbing, unsettling and alarmingly familiar, yet the drama unfolds with humour and compassion.

Bruntwood script review:

Theatrically original and vibrant, National Trust is a gripping play that is hugely topical to today’s political systems and contemporary issues. The play blends capital P Politics and personal politics with confidence and ease. We were invested in the characters and found their voices to be distinct. There are numerous examples of well-crafted comedy, particularly regarding witty wordplay. The reveal that Samantha is Peter’s child is especially well handled in that it is both surprising and yet makes complete sense.

London Unattached review:

National Trust - a political drama for our times.

National Trust is a new play by Mial Pagan, debuting at the Camden Fringe. Upstairs at the Gatehouse provides an intimate setting for Pagan’s play, set in the varying personal offices of Peter Fraser (Tim Robinson) as he climbs “the greasy pole” from junior political researcher to PM. Ex-lover and journalist Eleanor Perry (Jill Priest) makes a deal with Fraser, promising favourable coverage in the Murdoch press in exchange for access to the inner musings of government. The play tracks their rocky relationship and the tragic consequences of sleaze.

National Trust is Macbeth crossed with the Thick of It; a drama about the corruption of power with an abundance of comic political observations. Where Pagan succeeds most is in his comic scenes. A conversation between Fraser and political ally James Keiller (Andrew Baird) where Keiller prepares Fraser for an interrogation by the 1922 committee is witty (“I don’t think so”/“The A+ answer is of course not.”/“Will they believe that?”/“Of course not.”) and successfully highlights how, to politicians, power is merely a game. When the ghosts of Macmillan, Thatcher and Blair (“But you’re not even dead!”) appear in front of Fraser, there is a funny and poignant assessment of the state of the Tory party.

Peter Fraser is a humorous character. Clearly modelled on Boris Johnson (“people think he’s funny…the problem is that no foreign leader takes him seriously”), he ascends the political hierarchy due to his media persona and talent for failing upwards. It is a demonstration of how incompetent and totally unimpressive politicians can get to the top while remaining almost entirely off the public radar until the crucial moment.

Because of the success of the play’s comic elements, National Trust struggles when it tries to be earnest. Rosemarie Partridge’s character Malevich, named after the Russian painter and modelled on Putin’s advisor Surkov, is projected every so often to provide a poetic interlude in the style of the Greek chorus. I found it to undermine the message that great government failures are caused by incompetent fools in positions beyond their station – Fraser may consider himself to be a Greek tragic hero, but he is far from it in reality. The comedy in the play is more than capable of making serious points on its own without the need to highlight it with a Greek chorus.

In the programme, gratitude is expressed to cast and crew who persevered via Zoom, through the lockdowns of the past two years, to put on this play. It is a credit to the cast, crew, writer and director (Sinead Dunne) for getting this play over the line. One could not tell that much of the rehearsal process must have been online, and it is a testament to Dunne’s direction and the excellent performances, particularly by Andrew Baird and Jill Priest. Since the start of the process of making the play, British people have learned all too well the tragic consequences that befall a population that puts its national trust in the hands of a performative, narcissistic fool like Peter Fraser. As a political drama, it successfully shows the dangerous connection between ambition and power. The characters are well-drawn and well-acted in a drama of wit and disturbing familiarity.

Mick, an anarchist with a religious fixation, opens a new squat in Brixton and with it a fresh chapter in the lives of a group of political activists with varying ideals and visions of the world. Johnno, an easy-going Australian and Eva a Dutch computer geek, view the squat as free accommodation for an extended holiday in London. Feminist writer Emma wants to build her life round the principles of the commune. Her boyfriend Phil is a realist; he hates the squat and sees his job as a teacher in a tough South London school as a more practical way to improve the world. Mick believes in direct action and through a haze of drink and drugs pursues his own vendetta against the world.
The breadth of their beliefs creates frictions which simmer constantly but are tolerated and kept in check by the closeness of their relationships. Alan, a manipulative outsider, arrives to expose the fault lines between them and snap the fragile bonds that keep the group together. His actions and the corrosive effect of Mick’s personal demons, test unity, friendship and idealism to destruction.

Mial Pagan’s play, Other Peoples Lives, was given a work-in-progress rehearsed reading in the Studio at the Abbey Theatre, on Sunday 1 June. The five characters who inhabit the Brixton squat, Mick, Phil, Emma, Eva and Johnno, are firmly opposed to Margaret Thatcher and all her works. But they don't just sit around moaning about it, or waste time at boring party constituency meetings - they get out there and take radical action - well, that's what they're going to do when they've worked their way through the Guardian crossword or finished the latest computer game, or had another drink or, better, got stoned. Of course, this was a group that was bound to break up and go their separate ways - the process has already started at the beginning of the play, with Phil, the teacher (played by Dan Bottom), who has become disenchanted with the way of life and is beginning to look around for a more settled mode of existence - a flat for him and Emma (Alison Wright) and, perhaps, we suspect, bourgeois marriage and a family. But the process of disintegration is accelerated by the arrival of Alan (John Pyke), a sinister and manipulative character who has latched on to Mick (Dan Jackson), an anarchist and the most vulnerable and ultimately tragic member of the ménage.
Mial has captured these characters brilliantly - their ambitions, quarrels, loves and betrayals, all brought to life by a strong cast, which apart from those already mentioned, included Jo Emery as Eva, the computer geek from Holland, and Dale Hurley as the easy going Aussie Johnno, who turns out to be a little too easy going when it comes to his mate's girlfriend. The play was characterised by some really lively dialogue which got plenty of laughs from a large audience.
Mial Pagan is a member of the Company of Ten's Writers' Group, and scenes from the play were given a reading in the group, earlier in the year. I look forward to watching the work develop over the coming months into what, I am sure, will become an absorbing full length play.
Derek Rhodes

Taking its inspiration from the memorials found in the streets around St Albans Abbey, The Old Fighting Cocks follows the fortunes of three young men who sign up and go off to fight, calling themselves 'The Old Fighting Cocks' after their local pub where the landlord Robert Clifford is a father figure to them. They talk about the prospect of war, their excitement at joining up to serve King & Country as well as their hopes, fears and worry for those they are leaving behind.
As the play progresses, Clifford (as narrator) reflects on his days in the army, and the conversations turn to the victories and tragedies of the conflict, with the inevitable loss of life and those locals who never made it home or returned wounded and badly affected by their experiences.
The play switches from pub to battlefield, and we hear the men’s letters to their families and the tender conversations between the two lovers in the story, Vera Spence and Reuben Lawrence.

Review of The Old Fighting Cocks

The Old Fighting Cocks, a radio play set during the First World War, is an exquisitely crafted and deeply moving production. Beautifully written, directed, and sound-edited for radio, with outstanding performances from the entire cast.

The play vividly brings to life its characters and setting, drawing listeners into the emotional world of the trenches and the way in which duty, loyalty and the horrendous effects of war ripple out into the smallest corners of home life back in the small town from which so many left, never to return.

The play’s poetic storytelling and atmospheric sound design enhance its emotional depth. The use of sound—such as the creaking door of the inn - adds a haunting realism, making the relationships between pub landlord Robert Clifford’s character and the community all the more authentic. Bob Kever’s portrayal in the homecoming scene is heartbreaking in its raw emotion and searingly brutal description of life on the Somme in 1916.

Listeners have been deeply moved by the play’s poignancy. One commented: \'I\'ve just finished listening and it honestly brought me to tears. Absolutely fantastic. Beautifully evoked and so poignant\" while another praised its \"brilliantly told and arranged\" structure. Another remarked on how powerfully it conveyed \"the cruelty of duty and the devastation that this horrible war brought. The community of St Albans must surely be proud of this remarkable achievement.\"

A heartfelt congratulations to writer Mial Pagan and the Abbey Players for their outstanding work - this is radio drama at its finest.

The play is available to listen to for free on the Abbey Theatre website: https://www.abbeytheatre.org.uk/podcast/the-old-fighting-cocks/

Eugene Gillan comes back from the trading floors of the City of London with guilty secrets. In an attempt to recreate his nostalgic view of the village where he grew up and where his first love still lives he unleashes cruel consequences for those around him. Recognising that lives change through time, old beliefs no longer sustain us and hope lies in being true to ourselves, Eugene and his fellow villagers face harsh truths exposed by fault lines of memory, identity and time.
Drawing inspiration from Irish folklore, Thin Places takes its title from the Celtic idea of mystical locales where borders between worlds are blurred. This idea extends to memory where just a note of music will tear the veil between past and present.
“There's an old Celtic saying, ‘Heaven and Earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.”’
Moira. Act II Sc. 5.

Thin Places, Little Angel Theatre – review by Sarah Birch | Saturday 24 August 2024

‘Heaven and Earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter’.
There are times when we experience a collision of social and moral worlds that make us rethink who we are. Thin Places, the new drama by Fire Monkey Productions, probes the intricacies of place, morality and identity with delicacy and humour.
The play, written and directed by Mial Pagan, is set in a small Northern Irish village from which young Eugene Gillan has set out to build a career in the financial world of the City of London. But when Eugene returns to visit, he discovers that his mathematical genius is not matched by his understanding of the people he loves, and he struggles to grasp the world he once thought of as his own.
The production draws liberally on themes from Irish folklore, expressed most directly by the farsighted blind woman Moira, who conjures up the Celtic idea of mystical locales where borders between worlds are blurred: “Heaven and Earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.”
The notion of ‘thin places’ which gives the play its title unfolds in the emotional turmoil that is unleashed by Gillan and the secrets he holds.
There are standout performances from Guy Conroy-Smith as the troubled lead Eugene, and Abbe Waghorn, who gives a haunting performance as Moira.
The quality of the script and acting make this one of the brightest stars in the firmament of the 2024 Camden Fringe – a great way to round off your festival.
Thin Places is on at the Little Angel Theatre in Islington until 24 August 2024.