A musical drama based on the life of former SDLP leader, the late John Hume has opened in Derry.
Beyond Belief, which has opened at the city’s Guildhall, is a collaboration between the Playhouse theatre and the John and Pat Hume Foundation.
It is the second in a trilogy by the Playhouse and has been timed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Written by Northern Ireland writer, Damian Gorman with music by Brian O’Doherty, Beyond Belief is focused on the lives of Nobel peace laureate, Hume and his wife, Pat.
The production follows the couple through the Troubles, including some of the worst atrocities of the time. It also focuses on the late SDLP leader’s life-long work for peace, culminating in the Good Friday Agreement of which he is accepted as the key architect.
Derry director, Kieran Griffiths oversaw the production and also directed the first musical drama in the trilogy, “The White Handkerchief”, based on the Bloody Sunday massacre.
The cast includes well-known Derry actor, and former republican prisoner, Gerry Doherty who plays Mr Hume in later life. Doherty served a prison sentenced as a young man for his part, in 1972, in an explosion at the Guildhall, the scene of last Friday’s premiere. The younger Hume is played by County Derry's Conor O’Kane while Newry actor Niamh Morgan has taken on the role of Pat Hume.
A spokeswoman for the Playhouse said: “While he has been described as a Titan, a giant and a hero of peace-making and reconciliation, ‘Beyond Belief’, in its words and music, will reach for the man.”
Writer, Gorman said the work set out to portray Hume in all aspects of his life and work. He said it was not merely a tribute.
The writer told BBC radio: “Here’s the really interesting thing about this man; in the darkest of days when peace was a thankless, hopeless task, it was his task and he kept at it.”
Beyond Belief will run until April 7.
