Iconic photographs give this new musical play its title: a crouching priest waves a bloodstained white handkerchief as he moves along a city street, past armed soldiers, followed by men bearing a body in their arms. The priest is Father Edward Daly, the city is Derry, the body is 17-year-old John (“Jackie”) Duddy; the date is 30 January 1972, known since as Bloody Sunday. On that day, unarmed civil rights marchers, protesting against internment without trial, were shot at by British soldiers: 13 were killed; 15 wounded.
The events of Bloody Sunday have been crafted into drama by composer Brian O’Doherty and playwright Liam Campbell (who died on 20 December last year, just before it went in to rehearsal). They are played out for us by a 34-strong cast of local professional and community actors, accompanied by a 12-strong orchestra, in the symbolically charged setting of the Guildhall, the intended destination never reached by the marchers.
