The Liffey Players tackled an astonishingly ambitious project when they took it upon themselves to produce Bloody Sunday: Tales from the Saville Inquiry.  The playwright, Richard Norton-Taylor gathered testimony from over 1000 inquiry witnesses, which he condensed into this courtroom drama.

 This could not have been an easy play to produce and it is certainly not an easy play to watch.  There are a number of reasons for this. 

 Firstly, this is not fiction.  Bloody Sunday is the dramatization of a four-year long inquiry into the events of the 1972 shootings of 26 Irish civilians by British troops.  One cannot help but realize the enormity of the impact that this event had upon Irish history and upon the lives of individuals.  At times during the play, photographs are projected to highlight points made in the statements being reviewed.  These are graphic photos of bloodshed; they are real and they are disturbing.

 Secondly, this is a courtroom drama in the strictest sense.  The dramatic possibilities are all contained only within the words of the testimonies by the witnesses.  This could actually have been produced as a radio play, as the entire production is essentially talking heads.  This has both the power of bringing the words of the witnesses to the forefront (and they are very powerful words), but also has the shortcoming of offering nothing in the way of relief from the onslaught of those words.

 At times I was confused by the testimony which described where witnesses were geographically in relation to the troops and to city landmarks.  A blueprint of the Bogside area where the event occurred would have been enormously helpful in understanding the implications of some of the testimonies.  This could have been quite easily done, as sections of statements were already routinely projected on the backstage during the play.

 Lastly, the play runs two and a half hours long.  For most theatre-goers, myself included, this is simply too long to endure.  I understand that two and a half hours is a mere fraction of the 4 years that the actual inquiry spanned, and I admire how Norton-Taylor was able to glean what were presumably the most dramatic moments from those four years, but I believe that this play could have done with still more judicious editing. 

 The Liffey Players really did quite a remarkable job in producing this play, and it must have been an onerous undertaking, but I think that most of the audience became very restless partway through the second act.  I drifted off a few times, and my daughter claims to have heard somebody behind her snoring at one point.

 The Liffey Players are obviously very committed to bringing the full story of Bloody Sunday to the world, and for this they are to be commended.  Ultimately though, the play was simply too long.