http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/

Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's, 38-40 University Road, Belfast (2026)

12/04/2026

Golden Seams, Reviewed by Nelson Ives.

So you said 2026 was the year you engage more with the community, but maybe you’re struggling with how to put that into action? Do you like theatre and/or storytelling? Then do I have an organization for you to follow!

Voicing the Void is an organization that amplifies the voices of the marginalized through restorative storytelling. And I recently saw their latest instalment, Golden Seams.

And the show’s calls to action and focus on community are strong, with stories covering a breadth of topics. Topics such as medical gaslighting to the justice system were told through a variety of mediums through the performance. Not solely limited to standard play format, but also bringing in art forms such as first-hand storytelling, dance, documentary, poetry, and visual art. The variety of which created some pretty powerful moments throughout.

The entire team at Voicing the Void and especially the women who share their stories throughout should be commended for the run. As it successfully entertained and educated throughout the night. It was community building, like telling stories around a campfire. This effect encourages you to let your guard down, sharing ugly truths out to a circle of people you trust. While in the same breath as you find yourself laughing, you find yourself crying, then feeling rage, then wanting to get up and dance, and you realize those sitting around the campfire are feeling the same way as you listen.

While the run for Voicing the Void: Golden seams is now over, if interested I recommend giving them a follow here on Instagram to stay up to date on any future instalments.

11/04/2026

⚓️Reading Seamus Heaney: The Cure at Troy ⚓️

https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/Events/ReadingSeamusHeaneyTheCureatTroy.html

Reading Seamus Heaney: The Translations of Seamus Heaney is the second season of public talks and group discussions that will look at major works of translation by Seamus Heaney between the early 1980s and the 2010s. Beginning with an introductory overview, we will look at a poem or play each month, guided by Seamus Heaney Centre staff, visiting writers and other guest speakers.

This month we welcome guest speaker Doctor Eamonn Hughes to discuss Heaney’s translation of The Cure At Troy.

Dr Eamonn Hughes is a retired lecturer in Irish Studies at QUB and was Assistant Director of the British Association for Irish Studies. He specialises in Irish Literary and Cultural Studies, on which he has published widely, and his current interests are in Irish autobiography and concepts of place in Irish writing.

The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s holds a unique archive of broadcast materials, both television and radio, relating to the poet’s life and work. These recordings will be used to illuminate the discussions and provide context for the work we will be discussing.

With no specialist knowledge of poetry required, you can expect to acquire an understanding of Heaney’s idea that he wanted to ‘take the English lyric and make it eat stuff that it has never eaten before.’

11/04/2026

Project Hail Mary, Reviewed by Anna Brolly.

Project Hail Mary, (2026) based on Andy Weir’s novel, is at its core, a remarkably gentle film. With much of modern cinema mistaking despair for greater cinematic depth, it is openly kind to its audience and holds fast to the quiet power of connection.

Firstly, you can’t talk about ‘Project Hail Mary’ without mentioning the visuals and the score- both as significant a presence as the actors. Both image and sound accompany the hardships, conflict, humanity and resolution of the film and it wouldn’t be as impactful without them. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the film’s premise is expansive-naturally- but its focus is very intimate. Gosling’s character, Dr Ryland Grace, is framed as an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances rather than a typical hero. The film centres his hesitations, doubts and most of all, humanity. In doing so, the film argues heroism stems from decent choices and actions- it highlights and celebrates being human.

This same care and attention extend to the film’s treatment of the unknown. The wonderful unlikely friendship between Grace and alien Rocky is founded on support and trust. It emerges through a collaborative process of learning how to imitate and understand each other. Their bond takes its shape through rhythm, repetition and a lot of patience, eventually becoming fluent in each other’s language. Rocky is given a voice, transforming him from entirely (and literally) alien, into a character that is emotionally legible. This alien language and identity is understood and adopted by Grace, what begins as difference becomes dialogue, and so grounds the idea that connection isn’t found in sameness but is forged through a willingness to understand differences.

The astrophage could easily have been presented as threatening, but instead is something wonderful (you know the moment I’m talking about if you’ve seen it). Everything in the film is imbued with a sense of awe, giving us a perspective where nothing is taken for granted.

Project Hail Mary insists, firmly, that hope is not naïve; it is necessary, and perhaps, in its own small way, quite extraordinary.

05/04/2026

Where We Bury the Bones, Reviewed by Jade Hamill.

Historical and Contemporary, ‘Where We Bury the Bones’ is a product of conceptual ambition.

Accompanying the play was a tangible memento serving as both immersion and intrigue; archive text upon card including catalogue number, specimen collection and date. The text of which overlayed scenic backdrops.

In Sabine Dargent’s set design, a shard in the background looms within which figurines representative of humanity passing through Kilkenny are positioned. The precision of these figurines’ movements begins with tweezers and end with bare fingers, perhaps a portent of the damage humanity inflicts upon the natural world. We are watching the living excavation of an archaeological survey in Kilkenny’s Abbey Quarter, 1970s whereupon a bone was discovered.

Meaning is constructed through semiotic modes including; archive text, dance, song which obscures the narrative, lending itself to open interpretation of which the audience must actively construct meaning from. Both the interplay of performance and non-linear storytelling affords a generosity to the sensory elements, to a certain extent.

O’Neill’s soundscape with the eight-piece orchestra is akin to a Gregorian chant which alters drastically once we start the second half, synching with the dance choreography. Dancer Cristian Emmanuel Dirocie, wearing a Hawaiian shirt amongst a cast of black suits, expressively forms into a breakdance. Stephanie Dufresne slow dances, preemptive of the shared tender moment in the second act where they repeat each other’s language.

Commentary on the archaeology and the people that coincide is layered over videos that combine archive footage alongside which O’Neill’s singing is a combination of operatic and spoken poetry. The multi-disciplinary combination becomes integral to a production that threatens to be overcomplicated but grows in impact.

‘Where We Bury the Bones’ has succeeded in a procession of scenes in the second act and is imbued with conceptual ambition.

04/04/2026

Midwinter Break, Reviewed by Ben Curry

Adapted from Bernard MacLaverty’s 2017 novel of the same title, Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville are perfectly cast as the emotionally guarded couple in Polly Findlay’s adaptation, as we are treated to beautiful shots of Dutch architecture in the bleak midwinter.

At the age where retiree Gerry is excited to find that his glasses are still in their case, and his wife, Stella grapples with religion and her past, we get a glimpse into their life post raising a child and retiring in a quaint tenement flat in the West End of Glasgow. Stella decides in a quiet moment, while doing dishes, to book a last-minute trip to Amsterdam as part of Gerry’s Christmas present, implied to inject some excitement into their relationship, although her intentions may not be so pure.

Not long after their arrival, Stella expresses interest in the Begijnhof, an enclosed Catholic courtyard reserved strictly for unmarried women to devote themselves and the rest of their lives to God.

Stella grows increasingly colder throughout, after deciding the purpose she has been longing for after raising her children, is in this ‘sisterhood’. She begins to realise that she despises Gerry’s cold mockery of anything spiritual (despite knowing this comes from a place of trauma surrounding his role in the Troubles.)

Stella, when faced with her past and crumbling marriage, decides to confess her secret about what happened in Northern Ireland, that she swore she would never tell anyone to an Irish immigrant, who she wrongly assumes is as religious as her. From this moment on every action the couple takes, both when together and separate is littered with vignettes from their past, allowing for a caustic examination of how trauma affects relationships, mirrored by Stella’s obsession with a miracle in the past, not allowing her to focus on the present.

Having The Troubles haunt the couple is a straightforward concept, ‘Midwinter Break’ in all its smallness allows a close, even-handed critique of relationships and religion that many post troubles fictions do not get the chance to tackle. Although the ending offers no more answers than it has questions.

29/03/2026

Group!, Reviewed by Esmé Kennedy.

I love fun theatre and ‘Group!’ The Musical was exactly that. This play was absurd but balanced, with a genuine emotional backbone that let you feel as well as laugh.

‘Group!’ first premiered in the Lyric in 2002, making me and it the same age. There were plenty of tongue and cheek references to the way ‘Group’ has aged , I admit I did have to google what “The Moonies” were afterwards. Yet, there were a handful of modern references thrown in to cement itself as being set in the 2020s, such as Chris’ instagram live and topics like “the manosphere.” Whilst I do think there was still definitely an energy of the noughties to this play, they did a great job at making it engaging to a younger modern day viewer.

Almost like an adult Belfast Breakfast Club, we are presented with a mismatched group of characters who would be unlikely to have ever met or be friends outside the group. We are shown their different walks of life and the different struggles they are having that leads them to group therapy. Despite their differences a strong bond is formed as the group advises each other on how to get through tough times. Life can be s**t - But we’re not alone and it’s easier with other people’s support.

The play uses a bare stage with nothing but a stack of orange chairs. These chairs are moved about constantly, helping to add pace and movement to the piece. I’m a sucker for chairography, and found Paula O’Reily’s choreography highly effective. Special shout out to the Cell Block Tango - esque moment - I could not stop laughing!

At the climax of the show several orange chairs of various sizes hang down from the ceiling visually capturing the mental disarray of the moment, this added an extra energy to the play and created a wonderful image of chaos.

Overall, this is a fun, kooky, and surprisingly heartfelt production that’s well worth a watch, especially if you like your theatre a little chaotic!

28/03/2026

The Bride!, Reviewed by Ruby Corrigan

What happens when you mix a feminist manifesto with a well-loved artefact of the literary canon? You get ‘The Bride!’ directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, a visually brilliant, morbidly humorous and deliciously gruesome retelling of the 1935 film ‘Bride of Frankenstein’, adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’ (1818).

The story centres on Ida, who has been possessed by Mary Shelley herself and brought back to life via galvanism. Spurred on by Shelley, wanting to tell the story she never got to write, Ida sets out, Frankenstein’s monster in tow, on a mission. A mission to establish her autonomy and find her voice amongst the shadows of patriarchy. It is arguable that Maggie Gyllenhaal, while brilliant in her own right, felt a certain connection to this project due to her own dismissal in pop culture in favour of her younger brother Jake. Either way, she nails that indescribable feeling of wanting to scream when everyone wishes you to be silent, blending moments of blind monstrous rage with quieter scenes of confusion.

This is exacerbated by the brilliant casting choices made. Jessie Buckley glitters in the role of Ida. Teetering on the verge of insanity, Buckley captures the character’s spunky witticisms and explosive rage in a perfect balance, you never know where she will take Ida emotionally or physically, but every time it leaves you in awe. Christian Bale works perfectly as the original Monster, or ‘Frank.’ He fully embodies the blithering slowness of the monster right down to the hunched stature and vacant eyes, often reacting to Buckley rather than making acting choices of his own - simulating an intriguing yet somehow believable relationship dynamic between the monsters.

My only qualm would be the presence of Jake Gyllenhaal as Ronnie Reed. For me personally, he did not service the story of Ida enough to be relevant, but perhaps his importance simply went over my head.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s film is an overdue reaction to the often-hyper-masculine portrayals of Shelley’s seminal tale that offers a message that, at least for women, transcends the gothic genre: Be the monster, challenge the patriarchy!

23/03/2026

📚 Scroll through for the full programme for this week’s Conference on Children’s Literature 📚

There is still time to register your free place across the three days of the conference.

To book follow this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conference-on-childrens-literature-2026-tickets-1975596723983?aff=oddtdtcreator

22/03/2026

Front and Centre, Reflected on by Darcey Youngman

Front and Centre is a collective, with the mission to advocate for women and non-binary playwrights and theatre makers in Northern Ireland. This year, on international women’s weekend, in The Playhouse in Derry, creatives came together to actively make change.

From the panels, to the workshops and showcases of new work, Front and Centre is activism. But activism is a string that binds us together, and binds us to help one another.

I was present to see Saturday and Sunday’s offerings of new work - missing Friday’s shows ‘Poached’ by Catherine Rees and Alice Malseed and ‘Dangerous Play’ by Amanda Verlaque.

The first show was ‘Sunday’ by Danielle James. A fever drama of wit, charm and something deep rooted rising on Easter. Next was Carley Magee’s ‘Growing Pains’ which screams f**k off to the partiarchy through an interesting, and highly intelligent script that blew me, and the birthday candles, away.

Sunday afternoon showcases works-in-progress with a Scratch. Squabble by Ryley A.Jamison is full of energy, laughs and airport-stress related drama. Squabble is a highly addictive short with a load of potential. TINTEÁN by Tonya Sheina and Maggie Hannon has the bones to be a masterclass in exploring past traumas, all it needs now is the willingness to venture into the Labyrinth.Party Police by Shannon Welby Phones is entertaining, energetic and hilarious, and with more exploration will truly sing loudly, maybe enough to get a noise complaint. Blackberry Season gave us shock, tension and was a masterclass in reverting audience expectations.

The last show was Hello Charlie, by Caoimhe Farren, a show that I reviewed at the first Front and Centre weekend last year, and was a delight to see once again. This time more confident, and with the promise to see it fully produced later this year. A hopeful note to end this fantastic weekend.

To read the full reviews of all the shows, follow the link or visit the page on our website:

The Sunday Spotlight | Seamus Heaney Centre | Queen’s Univerhttps://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/resources/CriticismIdeasonWriting/TheSundaySpotlight/sity Belfast

19/03/2026

🪩 Let’s chat! The Seamus Heaney Centre’s presents Sunday Social 🪩

Come visit The Seamus Heaney Centre and get chatting to different creative working in Belfast and Beyond.

Sunday Social is a calm and welcome evening that invites writers, director, theatre makers and all those in between to come together and network in a safe space.

This is part of our script development program ‘Off The Page’ that focuses on using dramaturgical and collobrative practice to develop a script. This is program is ran by criticism editor, producer and playwright, Darcey Youngman, with guest support with various creatives working in the industry.

The event will start at 4pm on Sunday 29th March 2026. To register please follow the link below, or visit our events page on our website:

https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/Events/SundaySocial.html

18/03/2026

📚 The full programme for the Conference on Children’s Literature, hosted by the Children’s Writing Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s is now live. 📚

Across three days (Thursday 26th-Friday 28th March 2026) authors and academics will converge on the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s for conversations on the past, present and future of writing for young people.

The conference will begin on Thursday evening with a roundtable discussion featuring the current and previous Children’s Writing Fellows in conversation with Damian Smyth (Arts Council of Northern Ireland), followed by a drinks reception in the Centre.

Friday will be dedicated to research papers presented by academics from the UK and Ireland, as well as the USA and Saudi Arabia.

Saturday will see children’s authors discussing their thoughts on the current and future landscape of writing and publishing for young people, with topics ranging from representation in books for young children to the power of science fiction and fantasy for younger readers.

Attendance is free and open to all and registration is open via the Eventbrite link on our website: https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/Events/Conferences/ChildrensLiteratureConference-2026/

While we would encourage people to attend for the entire conference, days can be booked individually.

We look forward to welcoming you next week!

15/03/2026

I, She, Medusa, Reviewed by Darcey Youngman.

A beautifully thought-out mixture of story-telling, emotion and play: ‘I, She, Medusa’ brings to us the women of our past, our present and our future.

‘I, She, Medusa,’ produced by Dark Forest Theatre, tells the tale of Medusa/Siobhan, as we watch a ticking clock loom over the stage, with every second that goes, we are getting closer to the show’s finale, the reveal and the emotional punch. The story tackles domestic abuse and violence against women, woven into the mythical and the treatments of female counterparts in these tales - something reminiscent of Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’, reframing and reclaiming the narrative.

Jade O’Neill as Medusa takes the stage with elegance and precision. Her performance truly shone, with her incredible physicality, to the more subtle choices through her facial expression and tone. O’Neill made for a gut-punching performance that left everyone in the theatre truly invested within the story she was telling.

The themes of the play were well explored, and presented in a more reflective, and empowering way. I scanned across the rows, and saw the women in particular in the audience, nodding their heads, an unfortunate reality that hits home - that Medusa isn’t the only one that has experienced mistreatment because of her gender.

My only critique of the show was indeed the weaving of all the elements presented. We have ‘three’ different timelines. The first. the opening scene with sibling-esque characters acting out the familiar scene of awaking a princess from her eternal slumber with true love’s kiss. The Second is Medusa and Hermes, and finally, the third, the reveal at the end of the play. I would have loved more ‘clues’ between these various story parts and timelines, to have a collective story that had clarity, as well as leaving room for interruption and thought.

‘I, She, Medusa’ tells a story that needs to be told, especially with the current climate, and with a rise of violence against women, Medusa feels like the perfect person to guide us to dismantle all we have known, and assumed.

Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's

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