A new production of Thomas Kilroy’s Double Cross is currently running at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast (10-27 October) and subsequently at the Abbey Theatre (31 October – 10 November).
Double Cross tells the true story of how fake news won the Battle for Britain, pitching World War 2’s two masterminds of propaganda against each other in a battle for the hearts and minds of nations.
It’s also a story about two Irish men who re-invented themselves as English nationalists: Brendan Bracken the British Minister for Information, and Nazi broadcaster William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw.
Writer Thomas Kilroy said that “Double Cross was written out of a kind of rage. A rage against the whole nature of fascism. A rage against the power residing in role-playing, in costuming, in uniforms, a rage against militarism and I was writing about two characters, two figures, that really came out of anger in me. But I had to find within myself a lot of empathy for these two individuals, or at least an understanding … kind of forcing the audience to cut loose from easy solutions”.
This is one of the most fascinating and searing Irish plays ever written and the Lyric is delighted to partner with the Abbey on this first major production of it since Field Day’s production in 1986.
“Look in your mirror. That is all you need to do”
