Business

Belfast playwright Rosemary Jenkinson puts business, banking - and busts - in spotlight at Lyric Theatre

<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Roisin Gallagher as Eilish in Love or Money pictured with Marty Maguire (left) as Alec, the unscrupulous lawyer, and  Michael Condron as Conor</span>
Roisin Gallagher as Eilish in Love or Money pictured with Marty Maguire (left) as Alec, the unscrupulous lawyer, and Michael Condron as Conor Roisin Gallagher as Eilish in Love or Money pictured with Marty Maguire (left) as Alec, the unscrupulous lawyer, and Michael Condron as Conor

BELFAST playwright Rosemary Jenkinson is keen to point out she has never owned a business and, more specifically, has never owned a business which has taken a bank to court - especially a lingerie firm which went bust.

Nor is she a just-divorced lawyer with an extremely demanding boss and, although happily single, the closest she has ever come to online dating was a speed dating event - "never to be repeated".

So, with that out of the way, how did the woman behind NHS satire, 'All Stitched Up' and Titanic drama, 'White Star of the North' write her latest offering, 'Love or Money' with such penetrating clarity and an 'almost-been-there' kind of truthfulness?

The play - a comedy "about banks, bras and going bust" - which opens in the Lyric Theatre tonight and satirises the treatment of businesses by banks, is simply built on "lots and lots" of research according to the author - as well as a generous helping of old-fashioned instinct.

"I never write about what I know," Rosemary says. "I tend to pick a subject matter which interests me and then I learn about it during the creative process. I once worked as a 'temp' in a bank and I have a lawyer friend who regularly puts in 14 hour-days but that is as personal as this story gets.

"I am certainly not an expert on banking or economics, but other people's jobs and lives fascinate me. It's like whatever I can't do is the thing that intrigues me most. And, as a self-employed person involved the arts, I can identify with the struggle for funding being faced by individuals and businesses."

She spent six months thoroughly researching her topic - of special interest was the long-running legal battle between property developers, Michael and John Taggart of Co Derry, and the Ulster Bank - before committing it to paper over three months last summer.

"I was very interested in the Taggarts case but also lots of other small businesses which were getting into difficulty with banks and whose stories were appearing in the papers," she says.

A former teacher of English in Greece, Poland and France, Rosemary also felt it necessary to weave some lighter moments into the dramatic immiseration - hence the creation of a lingerie business owner boyfriend for her 30-something protagonist, 'Eilish'.

"Eilish is a solicitor living life at a frenetic pace after a messy divorce," she explains. "She is back in the dating game and back in the law courts rebuilding her career when she suddenly finds things start to get tricky and her work and personal lives collide..."

The play also takes a questioning look at contemporary employment issues such as zero hour contracts - as well as the fate of the ordinary indigent worker.

"'Love or Money' is not all about high fliers," the author insists. "Along with the lawyer, the boss and the businessman, there is the businessman's employee who is just worried about losing his job. I think the view of the worker is an important one to highlight in the crisis."

If it all seems a tad heavy, she says she is banking (no pun intended) on a careful selection of one-liners, witty dialogue and comedic situations to balance out the serious topic at hand.

"Banks are one of the best themes of our era and I'm glad I tackled it," she adds, "but we all need to laugh. You look for the humour even in the most dire predicaments. It is what keeps us human."

'Love or Money' will be performed by the c21 theatre company (www.c21theatrecompany.com), whose members have been busy rehearsing ahead of opening night at the Lyric before touring at a number of venues across the north.