Belfast, Ireland Theatre: Caravan and Lord of the Flies Performances Reviewed

Two of the Belfast festivals events I attended were 'Caravan' (a risqué puppet show from an Australian theatre group) and 'Lord of the Flies' (a drama production of the classic book by William Golding). I'm into trying new and "different" things so I was drawn to these two productions. Neither made me uncomfortable but they both forced me to think. Both were equally provocative and R-rated in nature. But 'Lord of the Flies' was probably more received with the Belfast community because it is a classic and many generations have read the book in school.

'Caravan' is a relatively new play, only a few years old and just beginning to present itself to the world outside of Australia. I think the way it was advertised in posters and the booklet for the festival made it appear as soft-porn. The central image in the advertising was a couple having sex in a trailer. This didn't switch me off to what else the drama had to offer. The audience seemed mainly to consist of male/female couples between the ages of 20-50. There were no children, teenagers or elderly. I think this says that the age groups open to "different" drama are those that are mostly younger-and those settled in a relationship. I didn't see any other race than white. This is representative to the Belfast population because although there is a small black population and growing Asian community, the audience only consisted of about 40 so it was representative of the white majority. The audience also seemed to be mostly middle-class from their dress and this could mean that low-class Belfastians don't find drama worthy of their money and would rather go to the cinema.