Free exhibition marking the 75th season of the Lyric Theatre, with works by Jack B. Yeats, Louis Le Brocquy and writing by Seamus Heaney and Brian Friel.
A House of Play is open at the Lyric Theatre until 8 November, a big exhibition marking the theatre's 75th season. The Lyric is Northern Ireland's only producing theatre, and this is its way of looking back at where it all started. It was founded by Mary O'Malley in 1951, and it began as a studio theatre in her Derryvolgie Avenue living room. From there it grew into a proper cultural hub: it housed The New Gallery from 1963 to 1969, published the literary magazine Threshold from 1957 to 1990, and ran a dance centre, a drama school and Belfast's first music academy. The exhibition puts O'Malley at the centre, alongside the creatives who helped build the place, including Helen Lewis, Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel and John Hewitt.
Curated by Kim Mawhinney, the show brings together a wide range of art and writing. You'll find work by Jack B. Yeats, Alice Berger Hammerschlag, Basil Blackshaw, Louis Le Brocquy and Jean Osborne, with writing by Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel, John Hewitt, Christina Reid and Sam McCready. There's a specific section called The Return: Alice Berger Hammerschlag and The New Gallery, and two new paintings by Colin Davidson and Neil Shawcross.
The exhibition is part of a larger three-year heritage project funded by £194,006 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. That project goes beyond the gallery walls: it includes a life-size replica of O'Malley's original studio theatre, a new digital archive of costumes and production records, and a special edition of Threshold. A House of Play is the public-facing part of that work, the part you can actually walk through.
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It's open daily from 10:00 to 15:00, so it's a daytime thing rather than an evening one. Entry is free, though you'll need to book a free pass in advance. If you've spent any time around the Lyric, it's a nice chance to see the names and the history that sit behind the building.
